The chair of the SEC has said that every cryptocurrency except for Bitcoin should be considered a security. Gary Gensler told New York Magazine that projects “are securities because there’s a group in the middle, and the public is anticipating profits based on that group.” This would bring them under its remit.
SEC Accepts Every Cryptocurrency as a Security Except Bitcoin
The news overjoyed Michael Saylor, the celebrated Bitcoin maximalist and MicroStrategy’s co-founder and executive chairman. He took to Twitter to declare that consensus is forming that all cryptos other than BTC are securities meant to be regulated by SEC — a proclamation that makes Bitcoin the only crypto suitable for global money use!
Yet, Jake Chervinsky, a lawyer and policy lead at Blockchain Association, suggested that this would be unworkable for the SEC. He remarked on Twitter: “Chair Gensler may feel sure that only bitcoin is not a security while all other digital assets are securities; however, his view does not stand as law. The SEC has no power to monitor any of these products unless it wins its case in court regarding each asset—every single one individually”.
SEC’s Plan Could Make $663 Billion Worth of Cryptocurrencies Illegal
According to Gabriel Shapiro, legal counsel at Delphi Labs investment firm, Gensler may enact laws that render over 12300 cryptocurrency projects worth $663 billion illicit. He proclaimed that SEC registration is exorbitantly expensive for most token creators, and there isn’t an obvious path for registering these tokens. “It’s a grim outlook,” he tweeted.
He also added, “With the exorbitant cost of SEC registration, it’s no wonder token creators have struggled to register. But what will be their plan if they can’t? Are we all expected to face huge penalties and scrap our projects completely – that would mean a whopping 12,305 lawsuits! It looks like billions of American dollars are at stake here- so I’m left wondering… What is the game plan from here?”
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