Benzinga - A 2018 video of Gary Gensler, former professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and current chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is making rounds on Twitter where he says that cryptocurrencies are as valuable as commodities or cash and are not securities.
What Happened: The video is from Gensler’s lecture on “Blockchain and Money” where he discussed initial coin offerings (ICOs) and their legal status.
Gensler said that “three-quarters of the market are not ICOs or not what would be called securities” and called the U.S., Canadian, and Taiwanese markets as the “three jurisdictions that follow something similar to the Howey Test.”
He also acknowledged that ICOs may trigger a securities debate while concluding that “three-quarters of the market is not particularly relevant as a legal matter.”
See More: Top Indian Apps That Give Bitcoin, NFT Rewards
Armstrong Responds: Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) CEO Brian Armstrong, reacted to the news of the video with a single-word response on a Twitter post shared by cryptocurrency researcher “zk-SHARK.” His reaction was “Wow.”
The below clip is from a Fall 2018 Graduate MIT course called "Blockchain and Money"Gary Gensler – the current President of the SEC, was the professor.
The Hypocrisy speaks for itself