Gary Gensler, the outgoing SEC chair, revealed in an exit interview that he believed in Bitcoin’s future potential. The chair emphasized that Bitcoin was highly speculative and volatile as an asset.
However, he added that over 7 billion people worldwide wanted to trade the digital asset just as they did with other assets such as gold which could open potential opportunities for the asset.
Gensler suggested that Bitcoin was separate from other industry tokens since it had illustrated its use cases. He also emphasized that the SEC never viewed Bitcoin as a security and was therefore not bound by disclosure requirements.
Gensler emphasises other tokens need to comply with domestic security laws
Gensler added that other digital tokens also needed to demonstrate their use cases and underlying fundamentals before they could be approved.
The SEC chair commented that the crypto ecosystem has not been compliant with various domestic and international laws, including money laundering and securities laws. He added that Bitcoin was not a security token, but other tokens have violated security laws and adversely affected consumers.
“But a sector of this field, crypto, the investing public is investing based on projects and these things without prejudging any one of them, many of them are under the securities laws. And in that field, there’s a lot of noncompliance.” said the SEC chair.
Gensler noted that the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission(SEC) is a law enforcement agency required to protect the investing public against market manipulation and fraud. He insisted that if exchanges wanted to trade tokens on momentum fundamentals, relevant disclosures should be made beforehand.
The SEC announced in November 2024 that Gary Gensler would step down as the agency’s chair on January 20, the day the U.S. president-elect, Donald Trump, assumed office.
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