U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler acknowledged the regulator's loss in court over the rejection of Grayscale's application for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) left little recourse except to approve a dozen such proposals on Wednesday.
Gensler called the approvals “the most sustainable path forward” in a statement released just after the agency released the decisions highly anticipated by the crypto industry and investors.
“We have neither endorsed nor endorsed Bitcoin,” Gensler said. “Investors should remain cautious of the myriad risks associated with Bitcoin and products whose value is tied to crypto.”
In fact, he said that bitcoin “is primarily a speculative and volatile asset that is also used for illicit activities, including ransomware, money laundering, sanctions evasion and terrorist financing.”
And Gensler sought to make clear that these ETF approvals do not pave the way for further action by the U.S. securities regulator.
“This should in no way signal the commission’s willingness to approve standards for listing crypto asset securities,” he said. “The approval also says nothing about the commission's view of the status of other crypto assets under the federal securities laws or the current state of non-compliance of certain market participants crypto assets with federal securities laws.”
Bitcoin is the only digital asset that Gensler consistently acknowledges is not a security, saying the vast majority of other tokens fit the legal definition of securities that rightfully fall under the SEC's jurisdiction.
Crenshaw’s Dissent: “A Wayward Path”
Another of the five SEC commissioners, Caroline Crenshaw, disagreed.
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