A newly surfaced video featuring Gary Gensler from 2018 has made the rounds on social media, showing the now-chair of the United States securities regulator agastating that multiple cryptocurrencies are “not securities.”
On June 12 multiple Twitter accounts shared the video which is understood to come from a 2018 event hosted by Bloomberg for institutional investors.
“Over 70% of the crypto market is Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash. Why did I name those four? They’re not securities,” Gensler says in the video.
Chair Gensler in 2018 at a Bloomberg conference in NYC:“Bitcoin. Ether. Litecoin. Bitcoin Cash. Why did I name those four? They’re not securities.”What’s Goldman Gary going to say about this one? Deep fake? pic.twitter.com/p7DJlYkJIt
At the time, Gensler was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the video predates his appointment to chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by approximately two years.
It appears to contrast with Gensler’s more recent actions at the SEC, which has seen the regulator initiate a flurry of enforcement action on the crypto space in the past few months.
In his capacity as SEC chair, he has suggested that all cryptocurrencies — besides Bitcoin (BTC) — are securities. In total, the SEC has labeled at least 68 cryptocurrencies as securities in various lawsuits, though none of the four cryptocurrencies mentioned in the 2018 video have made it on this list.
The comments in the video are however another contrast from Genslers more recent views on Ether (ETH). The SEC chair was pressed for his answer on if ETH was security before a U.S. House Committee in April, but he refused to answer.
Gary Gensler and Representative McHenry arguing on whether $ETH is
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