SEC chair declines to discuss Bitcoin ETF

The Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, rejected a Bloomberg Television reporter’s question regarding the current status of applications to launch spot bitcoin-ETF.

Gensler did not want to talk about #Bitcoin or Crypto with @kaileyleinz today after their meeting where the SEC made changes to the treasury markets haha (admittedly he does have a point but Kailey focused on treasuries for 5 minutes before this question lol) pic.twitter.com/Ll9uCGJYEX

— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) December 13, 2023

In an interview after a meeting of the agency on changes in the Treasury markets, the SEC chairman said:

«The $26 trillion Treasury market is, in fact, the foundation of all our capital markets. This is how the government is financed, the ФРС conducts monetary policy, and we support the dollar’s global dominance. And you want to ask me about crypto? Those are your priorities?»

Gensler added that cryptocurrencies are not only less significant but have harmed many investors.

«They do not comply with not only securities laws but a host of other rules as well», — the official concluded.

The Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart conceded that Gensler “wasn’t entirely wrong in his monologue.” However, before the cryptocurrency question, the journalist spent about five minutes discussing the panel’s topic and could have expected an answer, the expert noted.

More than a dozen proposals for registering exchange-traded funds based on the spot price of bitcoin are under SEC review. Among the applicants are BlackRock, Grayscale, Franklin Templeton and Fidelity, whose representatives in early December continued discussions of potential product launches with the regulator. The process began in November and, according to experts, has entered the final stage.

Earlier, Gensler repeatedly stated that cryptocurrencies are securities and should be regulated by the SEC. Rostin Behnam, head of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, considers the majority of digital assets as commodities.

As the SEC chair has stated, the global economy does not need cryptocurrencies, and they could harm it. He described the digital-asset industry as a total fraud, scams and other wrongdoing.