Former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler spoke about the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) suddenly dropping its legal cases against major cryptocurrency companies like Ripple, Kraken, and Coinbase.
This is the first time the agency has retreated so rapidly from such large enforcement actions. The SEC recently dropped its appeals in the long-running Ripple case and also withdrew lawsuits against major exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken.
In a recent interview, CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin pointed out how many crypto CEOs were celebrating after the cases were dropped.
In response, Gensler declined to comment on individual lawsuits but offered his general perspective on the crypto market. He said, “Almost 99% of the crypto field is based on sentiment.”
He warned that assets relying purely on hype usually don’t end well, saying, “If this is just about sentiment, then, generally, those don’t end up well, and most then go down.”
Nevertheless, he admitted that Bitcoin could be an exception owing to the strong public interest. He added, “Something like Bitcoin might exist for a very long time because there is a real keen interest in it.”
Gensler compared the cryptocurrency market to precious metals like gold, noting that humans are typically drawn to only a few valuable assets. He expressed, “I don’t think we humans will have a fascination with 10 or 15,000 meme or sentiment tokens trading over the years,” he remarked.
Although Gensler did approve the launch of Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S., boosting Bitcoin’s legitimacy among institutions, he remains a controversial figure in the crypto space due to the SEC’s strict “regulation by enforcement” approach during his tenure.
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