In a pair of interviews on Wednesday, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler still didn’t seem too keen on discussing the Bitcoin ETFs his agency approved on Jan. 10.
And he reiterated earlier remarks that approving investment vehicles did not amount to the agency changing its mind about Bitcoin’s potential risks, but simply that it was a reaction to the August decision in Greyscale v. SEC where the agency, according to Judge Neomi Rao, “failed to reasonably explain” why it had previously approved Bitcoin futures products but not spot ETFs.
“Even though we had denied two dozen, a court in Washington said we didn’t get it right and it was sent back to us. The most sustainable thing to do is to approve them given the court ruling,” Gensler told Bloomberg News.
The SEC chairman, both in that interview and previously speaking to CNBC, reiterated his concern about the ties between Bitcoin and illicit actors and the multitude of cryptocurrency exchanges that experience little to no oversight. That’s why, Gensler noted, the recently approved ETFs are specific to Bitcoin, though he didn’t explain why Ethereum didn’t deserve similar consideration.
“This is a field that has been full of fraud and manipulation, and look at all the failures,” Gensler told CNBC when asked whether the problem was Bitcoin itself or the currency potentially being misused. “It is an entity, after the entity, after the entity.”
While I’m speaking on CNBC Squeaky boxGensler acknowledged that while regular currencies issued by governments are used illegally, for example for money laundering, those issued by central banks also play a huge role in supporting established economies. Meanwhile, he added, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies “simply hold the ransomware market share.”
Gensler was also asked about such criticism of cryptocurrencies, especially following ETF approvals, and insisted his agency remains impartial. “We are neutral on the merits of whether someone respects the law,” he said.
In the subsequent interview with Bloomberg, Gensler expressed his skepticism of cryptocurrency trading platforms, the relative volatility of Bitcoin compared to other assets, and the lack of use cases for many cryptocurrencies.
“We really try to ensure as best we can that there is no fraud or manipulation,” Gensler continued, “but one of the challenges of the Bitcoin market is that so much is traded on trading platforms that don’t comply with our laws.”