#Gensler says that #SEC "has never said" that #bitcoin and #Ethereum are securities
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission "has never said" that bitcoin and ether are securities, said outgoing chairman Gary Gensler to Yahoo Finance on Tuesday.
This statement arises after a debate on whether the second largest cryptocurrency in the world by market capitalization is a security following litigation and pointed questions from lawmakers about whether the token falls under the jurisdiction of the SEC.
Gensler stated that neither he nor his predecessor, former chairman Jay Clayton, has said that Bitcoin is a security.
"We have not said that Ethereum is a security," he said on Yahoo Finance. "I believe that investors in Bitcoin and Ethereum, the masses, as you have said, had access to these assets before funds and exchange-traded products existed."
When Yahoo Finance asked him to clarify that Bitcoin and Ether are not securities, Gensler was more detailed.
"I said that we, the SEC, have never said that they are securities," Gensler said, adding that he cannot directly say that both tokens are not securities due to the nature of his work.