'Some, like bitcoin, … [are] a commodity,' secgov Chair GaryGensler reiterated this week, seemingly separating $BTC from 'crypto.' Is he right? An opinion by DanielGKuhn:
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler has reiterated his claim that bitcoin is a commodity. His interpretation is partially rooted in precedent and, one would hope, reality.
"Some, like bitcoin, and that's the only one, Jim, I'm going to say because I'm not going to talk about any one of these tokens [that] my predecessors and others have said [are] a commodity," GenslerThis article is excerpted from The Node, CoinDesk's daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news. You can subscribe to get the fullWhere Gensler departs from his predecessors is his unwillingness to define Ethereum the same way.
“Crypto financial assets have the key attributes of a security,” he said recently, noting that there’s almost always a centralized entity that directs projects and stands to profit the most. That was certainly the case when the Ethereum blockchain first burst onto the scene in 2014 with an initial coin offering, a motley crue of builders and investors and institutions such as the Ethereum Foundation.