Gensler: SEC Regulates All Crypto Transactions, Except Bitcoin

Republished By Plato

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SEC has jurisdiction over most crypto transactions except Bitcoin spot transactions.
Gensler believes all crypto tokens are securities as investors seek profits from intermediaries.
SEC is the primary regulator of the crypto industry, but questions remain about its effectiveness.

In an interview with NYMAG, Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, pointed out that the agency already has jurisdiction over virtually every cryptocurrency transaction. However, he clarified that this rule did not apply to spot transactions in Bitcoin or to purchasing or selling products or services.

Gary Gensler said in an interview with NYMAG: pretty much every sort of crypto transaction already falls under the SEC’s jurisdiction except spot transactions in bitcoin itself and the actual purchase or sale of goods or services with cryptos, “everything other than bitcoin”.

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) February 27, 2023

He contends that all cryptocurrency tokens are securities since investors want to benefit from the efforts of intermediaries. In addition, Gary Gensler claimed in a blog post that, aside from Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency ecosystem contains several business owners and websites that may establish their legal companies in a tax haven abroad.

Others, according to Gensler, may go to the level of lawyering it up to try arbitrage and make it difficult from a jurisdictional standpoint. In this regard, Gensler believes that Bitcoin’s peculiar history and origin story distinguish it from other crypto ventures.

Although Gensler’s position is yet to be proven in the courts, it is not particularly difficult to grasp from a securities law perspective.

Whether crypto advocates like it or not, the Securities and Exchange Commission has emerged as the industry’s primary civil regulator. Nevertheless, there are still plenty of big questions about what the agency has been up to in recent years and what its current enforcement strategy will achieve.

Critics argue that the federal government’s actions, including those of the SEC, have failed to prevent the loss of trillions of dollars in value over the past year. Consequently, tens of millions of Americans who hold crypto assets in some form were impacted.