In a surprising statement during a recent conference with Magistrate Sarah Network, Dogan Bliss, senior trial advisor at the US Securities and Exchange Commission, told the SEC that the SEC has not yet taken a formal position on the regulatory status of Bitcoin and Ethereum, stating the following:

I want to make it clear that this is my understanding of the current situation and I do not want to be overly technical, but the Securities and Exchange Commission itself, in my understanding, has not taken an official position.

There is no action taken to say that Bitcoin or Ethereum is not a security.

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While former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton has repeatedly stated that Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency rather than a security.

However, Ethereum has not been disclosed, meaning there is still less regulatory certainty about it.

Bill Henman, the former chief financial officer of the Securities and Exchange Commission, made a passing statement about Ethereum sales and offerings that they were not securities transactions just months before the end of his term in 2018.

Bliss comments that Hinman’s letter does not necessarily reflect the SEC regulator’s views on Ethereum, stating:

There was a letter from a high-ranking person who told him that’s what it looked like, but there was no business letter, no executive action, and none of the official ways the SEC took a position on this.

Gary Gensler, the incoming SEC chair, made it clear that both Ethereum and Ripple are not securities, in a previous interview withThe New York TimesHis statement at the time was as follows:

There is a strong case for both – but especially Ripple – that they are not securities

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Notably, Gensler also confirmed that he sees bitcoin as a commodity during a recent congressional hearing, telling:

I think that the Securities and Exchange Commission targets every person or entity that has held an investment in securities.

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As this falls within the jurisdiction of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

If not, it can be argued that it is a commodity, as Bitcoin has been considered.

Unlike Bitcoin, many cryptocurrencies were pre-mined by Ethereum and offered as an Initial Coin Offering (ICO).

The above brings back several accounts regarding the Ripple issue, as the Ripple defense resorts to the argument that the SEC considered Ethereum a cryptocurrency, so it should look similar to Ripple, to show that the SEC did not specify its position on Ethereum either!

Case to follow…

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