Sen Patrick Grills SEC Chief Over Security law unclarity, here’s what Gensler Refused to Answer

The latest House Committee on Financial Services video conference saw Senator Patrick McHenry grilling the SEC chief, Gensler regarding his unclarity on the regulatory framework for crypto in the U.S. Sen Patrick questioned the SEC chair on whether he considers Bitcoin and Ether to be securities, referring to Gary Gensler’s comments before the same committee in 2018 on digital assets. However, Gensler’s response was just as unclear and vague as the securities law today. Gensler continues to assert that the “securities laws are quite clear”, making self-contradicting public statements regarding crypto yet again.

“I am not going to get into any one token, but I think that securities laws are quite clear. If you are raising money from somebody else and that’s something the investing public believes that they anticipate or have a reasonable anticipation of profits based on the efforts of others, that fits within the securities law.”, said Gensler.

Furthermore, Sen Patrick consecutively asked the SEC Chief whether he had read Hester Peirce’s safe harbor proposal for digital currencies. However, Gensler kept repeating that, “Commissioner Peirce and I talk actively about these matters…” but blocked any further questions regarding the proposal by failing to answer whether he has gone through the proposal in the first place.

“Crypto Mom” criticizes the SEC, again

Commissioner Hester Peirce, aka “crypto mom” has been vocal about her discontent with the SEC’s way of handling the securities laws issue. Recently, at Yahoo Finance Live, Pierce noted that “it’s a real shame” that the US regulators’ are consistently failing at drawing up a clear legal framework for cryptocurrencies and securities.

“It is disconcerting to me that for three years now I’ve been asking for regulatory clarity, and we can’t seem to provide any…I think this is really becoming a huge barrier to this industry being able to develop in a way that’s safe, but also in a way that allows innovation to happen. And it’s a real shame to me that we are not just taking up the mantle as regulators to develop a regulatory framework.”, she said.