Gary Gensler, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), made a series of comments related to the cryptocurrency market on CNBC today. Regarding the recent approval of some Ether spot ETFs, Gary Gensler stated that the next step in the approval process (the S-1 document) will take some time. Fox reporter Eleanor Terrett suggested that this may imply a slow progress in the S-1 approval process, meaning that Ether spot ETFs may take longer to be listed for trading. However, this could also be seen as a positive sign, indicating that the SEC is still advancing the work on the S-1 documents rather than outright rejection.
In addition, Alexander Grieve, Head of Public Policy at venture capital firm Paradigm, pointed out that Gary Gensler revised his previous statements during the interview, changing from “all tokens are securities” to “tokens lack proper disclosures,” which seems to suggest a softening of Gary Gensler’s tough stance on cryptocurrencies.
When commenting on the cryptocurrency market, Gary Gensler also mentioned that traditional financial exchanges act as intermediaries and do not act as counterparties to investors, while cryptocurrency exchanges are doing things that New York Stock Exchange or traditional exchanges are not allowed to do under the law.
