PEOPLEREGULATION

SEC Chairman Caught Again, Reveals in Lecture: Most Cryptocurrencies are Not Securities, but Commodities or Cryptocurrencies

share
SEC Chairman Caught Again, Reveals in Lecture: Most Cryptocurrencies are Not Securities, but Commodities or Cryptocurrencies

The Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, mentioned in a past blockchain course he taught that both the United States and Taiwan use the Howey Test to determine whether a cryptocurrency qualifies as a security. In this scenario, three-quarters of the cryptocurrency market are not considered securities, but rather commodities or digital cash.

SEC Chairman Gary Gensler: Three-Quarters of Cryptocurrencies Are Not Securities

The crypto community and developer @ZK_shark shared a video on Twitter from 2018 of Gary Gensler teaching at MIT, which was also retweeted by Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong.

In his course "Blockchain and Money," Gensler mentioned:

So we've learned that in the U.S. and many other jurisdictions, three-quarters of cryptocurrencies are not from ICOs, and are not securities. Even in the U.S., Canada, and Taiwan, these countries follow similar approaches we've discussed: the Howey Test. Three-quarters of the market's cryptocurrencies are not securities, they are commodities, digital cash.

Community Actively Seeking Loopholes in SEC Chairman's Statements

Previously, the community discovered that Gensler, in his past teachings, praised the public chain Algorand ALGO for its great technology and interesting consensus mechanism, but Algorand was recently accused of being an unregistered security in legal documents filed by the SEC against the exchange Bittrex.

Details of the Bittrex lawsuit: U.S. SEC sues veteran exchange Bittrex for improperly sharing orders with overseas subsidiaries

The course video shared by Brian Armstrong includes a link to the full video.

In that particular course, Gensler also mentioned his views on future compliance of cryptocurrency exchanges:

More than half of the crypto exchanges strictly adhere to the anti-money laundering policies mentioned by Crypto Compare, while a quarter of the exchanges do not. I think there will be a slow increase in the future, but many exchanges may also turn to countries with lower regulatory standards. How should exchanges comply? There are a bunch of exchanges waiting to register in the U.S., and what the SEC can do is: 'We won't fine you for your past actions, but can you be fully compliant in the next 12 to 18 months?' I think this is something that will happen soon.

However, based on the recent aggressive enforcement actions by the SEC, it seems that the SEC's actions are not in line with Gensler's initial predictions.

According to Coinbase, there are no specific regulations for crypto businesses to follow.