U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler has cautioned about crypto investing. “This is a highly speculative asset class. One could just look at the volatility of bitcoin in the last few days,” he stressed, warning that thousands of crypto tokens may be securities.
SEC Chair Gensler Cautions About Crypto Investing — Warns 'Thousands' of Crypto Tokens May Be Securities
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Gary Gensler’s Crypto Investment Warning
The chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, issued some warnings about crypto investing in an interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday.
Gensler was asked about the classification of ether ( ETH) as either a security or a commodity, as well as the possibility of the SEC approving a spot ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF). “Any one of these crypto tokens is about the facts and circumstances as to whether the investing public is anticipating a profit based on the efforts of others,” the SEC chief replied. “But we do have [ ETH ETF] fillings in front of us. I’m not going to comment.” He elaborated:
This is a highly speculative asset class. One could just look at the volatility of bitcoin in the last few days … You really should be conscious as the investing public that this is a bit of a roller coaster ride on these volatile assets.
Bitcoin’s price fluctuated significantly this week, reaching a record high above $69K before pulling back. At the time of writing, BTC is trading at $67,945.
Besides the volatility of crypto assets, Gensler emphasized: “And then the question is how firm is the foundation … you know, you get to the top of that hill, how’s the foundation underneath?” He further warned:
For thousands of these tokens, there’s about 15,000 or 20,000 of them, they also may be securities because the investing public is relying on the efforts of some group of entrepreneurs in the middle of these projects.
The SEC chairman has issued warnings about cryptocurrency investments multiple times. He also previously indicated that most crypto tokens, besides bitcoin, are securities. Despite the SEC’s approval of 11 spot bitcoin ETFs in January, Gensler emphasized that this decision shouldn’t be misconstrued as an endorsement of BTC itself.
What do you think about the warning by SEC Chairman Gary Gensler? Let us know in the comments section below.
