TL;DR: The video has been cropped to skip the fact Gensler was only talking about Bitcoin and Ethereum, which in 2018 accounted for 70% of the entire crypto market cap. In 2018, the SEC had already declared both Bitcoin and Ethereum weren't securities. Full video linked below.
I'm not fan of the SEC or Gensler but wanted to try clear this one up as it's making some people look a little silly from crypto reporters right up to the CEO of Coinbase, Brian Armstrong.
You may have seen a video doing the rounds of Gary Gensle, Chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission where he says:
“So we already know in the U.S. and in many other jurisdictions that three quarters of the market are not ICOs or not what would be called securities.”
The clip is taken from an MIT seminar on Blockchain and Crypto which Gensler is the speaker. The video was recorded in the fall of 2018.
Hearing Gensler say three quarters of the crypto market are non-securities initially sounds shocking and the reason why the video has been circulated by news outlets and even Brian Armstrong with many now branding Gensler a hypocrite.
The clip doing the rounds is genuine, however has been carefully cropped to start with "So we already know……"
It starts with "So…" because Gensler was following on from a point that's been cropped off.
Keeping in mind this is 2018, Gensler was actually speaking about the then market cap of both Bitcoin and Ethereum. He was saying 54% of the market was Bitcoin and Ethereum was 16% so between them that's 70%.. he then went on to say…
“So we already know in the U.S. and in many other jurisdictions that three quarters of the market are not ICOs or not what would be called securities.”
He's only talking about two cryptocurrencies here, Bitcoin and Ethereum which (in the fall of 2018) represented three quarters of the Crypto market cap.
The SEC have already stated Bitcoin (then over half of the market) isn't a security and despite Gensler's recent reluctance to directly/ clearly re-confirm if the SEC thought Ethereum was a security.. back in 2018 the SEC were crystal clear that they thought Bitcoin/ Ethereum weren't.
https://cassels.com/insights/sec-declares-bitcoin-and-ether-as-non-securities/
This has also been reiterated in recent legal challenges.
As much as we'd all like to put one over Gensler and the SEC, we also need to acknowledge there's a lot of misrepresentation/ misinterpretation online and why particularly when it comes to crypto… DYOR and fact finding is so important.
If I was to take anything away from this (not investment advice) would be that in the eyes of the SEC.. Bitcoin and Ethereum are most probably not being classed as securities.. but I suppose we knew that already.
If you're reading Gary, IMO. The US securities act if almost 100 years old and was never meant for and shouldn't apply to Crypto in 2023. Crypto is the round peg that does not fit in the square hole and needs it's own new and fair custom legislation built from the ground up. If the government are profiteering from crypto taxation and licencing this is the least they can do. There's been little but taxing Crypto for over a decade so it's about time government put something back in.
Anyways heres the link to the original video, Gensler's full comments are from around 26min20sec
Hope this helps someone/ you find interesting 👍
submitted by /u/jam-hay
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