- SEC has to prove jurisdiction over each coin before they can move to regulate
- There are 12,300 tokens on the market with a total cap of $663 billion
Cryptocurrency lawyers slammed Gary Gensler, the chair of the US regulator, who claimed in a recent interview that every crypto with the exception of Bitcoin was a security and subject to regulatory control as such, CoinTelegraph wrote.
The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) claimed in an interview with New York Magazine on crypto that “everything other than Bitcoin” fell within his jurisdiction.
Gensler said all cryptos were securities because “there was a group in the middle and investors were expecting profits from that group.” The situation with Bitcoin was different according to him.
Crypto advocate: Opinion is not law
Jake Chervinsky, attorney and policy lead at crypto advocacy organization Blockchain Association, argued that the SEC chair may have increasing control over the crypto industry, but his “opinion is not the law.”
According to him, the SEC has to prove its case for its jurisdiction over each coin before they can move to regulate it. This needs to happen “one token at a time.”
Attorney Logan Bolinger weighed in as well. On February 26, he tweeted that Gensler’s opinions on what constitutes or doesn’t constitute a security are not final from a legal standpoint. He pointed out that court judges are the ones who must make the final decision about how to apply the law and what it actually means.
Fear, not celebration needed
Jason Brett, head of policy at advocacy organization Bitcoin Policy Institute, said we must fear rather than celebrate Gensler’s comments. He said one could be successful in other ways than via a regulatory trench.
SEC must file 12K+ lawsuits
According to Delphi Labs general counsel Gabriel Shapiro, the SEC can expect Sisyphean labor if they want to enforce their rule. There are more than 12,300 tokens on the market with a total cap of around $663 billion. Gensler called them all unregistered securities that were illegal in the country. The SEC would need to sue each token issuer.
Contributors
