Gary Gensler, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), made a series of comments related to the cryptocurrency market today on CNBC. Regarding the recent approval of some Ethereum spot ETFs, Gary Gensler mentioned that the next step in the approval process (the S-1 filing) will take some time. Fox reporter Eleanor Terrett suggested that this might imply a slow approval process for the S-1, indicating that Ethereum spot ETFs may take longer to be listed for trading. However, this could also be seen as good news, as it shows that the SEC is still progressing with the S-1 filings rather than outright rejecting them.
In addition, Alexander Grieve, Public Policy Lead at the venture capital firm Paradigm, pointed out that Gary Gensler has softened his previous stance during interviews, shifting from “all tokens are securities” to “tokens lack proper disclosure.” This seems to indicate a softening of Gary Gensler’s tough stance on cryptocurrencies.
When discussing the cryptocurrency market, Gary Gensler also mentioned that traditional financial securities exchanges are intermediaries and do not act as counterparties to investors, while cryptocurrency exchanges are doing things that are never allowed by the New York Stock Exchange or traditional exchanges according to the law.
