U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler is declining to comment on whether smart contract platform Ethereum (ETH) counts as a security or a commodity.
In a new interview with Bloomberg Television, Gensler says he does not want to answer questions about Ethereum’s classification as an asset amid anticipation of the regulatory agency’s decision on spot market ETH exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications.
“Any one of these crypto tokens is about the facts and circumstances as to whether the investing public is anticipating a profit based on the efforts of others, but we do have fillings in front of us. I’m not going to comment.”
Gensler says that cryptocurrencies are a highly speculative asset class, citing the volatility of Bitcoin (BTC) during the last few days.
“I grew up loving roller coasters. Maybe in my adult years, I don’t ride them as much, but you really should be conscious as the investing public that this is a bit of a roller coaster ride on these volatile assets.
The question is how firm is the foundation of that? You get to the top of that hill. How is the foundation underneath it, their cash flows or what’s the use case for thousands of these tokens?”
The SEC Chair goes on to reiterate that there are some contexts where digital assets can be considered securities. He says a defining factor is what an investor expects from the asset when purchasing it.
“There’s about 15,000 or 20,000 [digital assets]. They also may be securities because the investing public is relying on the efforts of some group of entrepreneurs in the middle of these products.”
The SEC greenlighted 11 applications for spot Bitcoin ETFs in January. The agency could decide on spot market ETH ETF bids sometime in May.
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