According to Valerie Szczepanik, director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Strategic Center for Innovation and Financial Technology, cryptocurrencies stand alone. should not be viewed as an asset class and should be evaluated individually.
“It might be wrong to say that digital assets are an asset class,” he said at a conference held by Chainalysis in New York on Thursday, adding:
“I think a digital asset is a representation of value, and you need to figure out what that value is.”
Szczepanik stated that the challenge is here as digital assets sometimes represent a commodity, sometimes a security and sometimes money. For this reason, he stated that cryptocurrencies should be evaluated individually on how they are bought and sold, adding that the SEC will regulate activities, not technology.
He also contested the idea that there is a lack of regulatory clarity when it comes to crypto. “I think there is clarity… we need to find out what function is, what existence is,” Szczepanik said. said.
“The problem is that the technology is so complex.”
Aside from these, US regulators have sent mixed signals as to which agency should be the crypto overseer. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler says many crypto assets should be viewed as securities; this is a definition that would place hundreds of cryptocurrencies under the jurisdiction of the SEC.
But in October, Rostin Behnam, acting chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said that the CFTC should be the main body overseeing cryptocurrencies rather than the SEC.
Bitcoin is regulated under the Commodity Exchange Act and is considered a commodity. But there are thousands of other coins in the industry, with many meme tokens sprouting up nearly every day that are in the gray area of regulation.