SEC Chairman Gary Gensler made statements regarding the cryptocurrency space to CNBC Squawk Box on Tuesday morning. Gensler was asked about the SEC’s recent move to file a Wells Notice against Robinhood Crypto. The interview also highlighted whether Ethereum is a commodity or a security.
SEC Chairman: We are doing what the law says in the crypto space!
cryptokoin.comAs you follow from , the US SEC sent a Wells Notice to Robinhood Crypto. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler says investors are not receiving vital disclosures after the agency distributed notices that it planned to take enforcement actions against multiple crypto entities.
Gary Gensler answered the host’s questions on CNBC Squawk Box on Tuesday morning. Gensler was asked about the agency’s recent move to file a Notice of Wells against broker Robinhood Markets’ cryptocurrency, Robinhood Crypto. The stock exchange made a statement on the issue on Monday. In this statement, he said that SEC staff has decided to recommend an enforcement action against the crypto exchange for alleged securities violations. Gensler said he couldn’t talk about any particular company. In this context, Gensler underlined the following points:
Stepping back (from the crypto assets space) without prejudging any of them, most of these tokens are securities under the law of the land, as interpreted by the US Supreme Court. So we are following this law and you, the investors, are not getting the required or needed disclosures about these assets.
Is Ethereum a security or a commodity?
Robinhood’s Wells Notice is one of a handful of filings filed against crypto assets in the past month. Consensys, the crypto firm behind MetaMask Wallet, and decentralized crypto exchange Uniswap also said they received Wells Notices from the SEC last month. The SEC is also battling crypto exchanges Binance and Coinbase in court.
He also asked CNBC host Gary Gensler a question about Ethereum. The presenter wanted to know from the authority whether ETH is a security or a commodity. In this context, he asked how to classify ETH. Gensler, who did not give a direct answer, made the following statement in a roundabout way:
All I can say is, to me, the fundamental question is how do we ensure that the American investor is protected? Right now, they’re not getting the disclosures that are necessary or needed, and the brokers at the center of this highly centralized market are often conflicted and doing things that we would never allow the New York Stock Exchange to do.
While the SEC president does not express an opinion, the CFTC President says commodity!
The SEC and its Chairman Gary Gensler have not publicly stated whether Ethereum is a security. However, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Rostin Behnam said that ETH is a commodity. Meanwhile, multiple issuers are also vying for a spot Ethereum ETF. But these have faced delays in the last few weeks. So optimism that the SEC would approve it by the end of May has since waned.
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