Cryptocurrency Ban Would Be Up to Congress, Says Gary Gensler
Gary Gensler, the Chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), recently expressed his views about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency assets in a discussion with the House Committee on Financial Services.
Gensler said that the US won’t follow China’s lead in banning cryptocurrencies completely. He added that any decision regarding a crypto ban would be up to Congress. “Our approach is really quite different,” Gensler said in the latest discussion.
“We are really working with the authority they (Congress) have given us. I have said this before, I think many of these tokens do meet the test of being investment contracts or a note or some other form of a security,” the SEC Chair added.
The cryptocurrency market reacted to the recent comments of the SEC Chair positively. The overall market cap of digital assets jumped by more than $80 billion within the last 24 hours. Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency asset, crossed $51,500 yesterday. Ethereum, XRP, and Dogecoin also saw strong gains during the mentioned period.
China’s Cryptocurrency Ban
In the latest discussion, Gensler said that the approach of the US regarding cryptocurrency assets would be different from China as the country is not planning to impose a complete ban on digital assets. Earlier this year, China imposed a ban on all crypto-related activities in the country including mining. Despite the reason that the US cryptocurrency ecosystem is still uncertain about the potential regulations in the region, the overall adoption has increased sharply in the last few months.
Cynthia Lummis, the US Senator from Wyoming, expressed her optimism in August regarding the amendments in the infrastructure bill and mentioned that the US cryptocurrency community would be pleased with the outcome. However, in an interview with CNBC in August 2021, Gensler termed digital currencies as speculative assets. “Bitcoin and the hundreds of other coins that investors are trading is a speculative asset class. The trading platforms they are on are not currently under a regulatory regime that protects them like they are trading on the NYSE,” Gensler said in the interview.
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