SEC Chairman Gary Gensler Views All Crypto Are Security Except Bitcoin

Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), believes that almost every type of crypto transaction falls under the jurisdiction of the SEC, except spot transactions in bitcoin and the actual purchase or sale of goods or services with cryptocurrencies. He said in an interview with New York Magazine.

He asserts that the tokens are securities because there is a group in the middle, and the public anticipates profits based on that group. This claim is central to Gensler's position that, as a legal matter, these are transactions in securities that fall within the SEC's jurisdiction.

Despite the well-resourced crypto lobby that is not likely to back down anytime soon, the SEC has emerged as the industry's primary civil regulator. However, there are still questions about what the agency has been up to in recent years and what its current enforcement strategy will actually achieve.

The federal government's actions, including those of the SEC, didn't do much to prevent frauds in crypto, which caused losses of tens of billion dollars over the last year.