NEW
YORK
—
U.S.
Securities
and
Exchange
Commission
(SEC)
Chairman
Gary
Gensler
said
he
thinks
it’s
unlikely
that
bitcoin
(BTC)
or
other
cryptocurrencies
will
ever
be
widely
used
as
a
form
of
payment
and,
instead,
will
continue
to
be
seen
as
more
of
a
store
of
value.
Speaking
at
an
event
at
NYU
School
of
Law
in
Manhattan
on
Wednesday,
Gensler
responded
to
a
question
from
an
attendee
about
what
the
value
of
cryptocurrency
–
which
was
created
to
be
separate
from
any
government
–
would
be
to
its
users
if
totally
brought
into
the
regulatory
fold.
Gensler
said
that
the
agency
is
“merit
neutral”
and
the
investing
public
will
get
to
decide
–
“through
disclosures”
if
there’s
a
utility
for
any
given
cryptocurrency.
“But
I
did
teach
this
stuff
up
at
MIT
and
so
forth,
so
I’m
just
going
say
this
–
these
debates
literally
go
back
to
Plato
and
Aristotle,”
he
said.
“This
is
3,000
years
of
history.
Hundreds
of
great
nations,
thousands
of
nation-states
–
we
tend
to
have
one
currency
per
geographic
economic
state.
We
tend
even
not
to
have
bimetallism.”
Gensler
cited
Gresham’s
law
–
a
monetary
principle
dating
back
to
the
19th
century
that
asserts
that
“bad
money
drives
out
the
good”
–
and
added
that
nations
typically
want
just
a
single
currency.
“You
want
one
currency
unit
because
it’s
a
store
of
value,
a
medium
of
exchange,
a
unit
of
account.
It
all
has
tremendous
economics
of
networks,”
Gensler
said.
“So
it’s
unlikely
this
stuff
is
going
to
be
a
currency.
It’s
going
to
have
to
show
its
value
through
disclosure,
through
use.
…
The
same
way
you
pick
amongst
the
thousands
of
securities
that
are
listed
on
the
stock
exchange.”
Fraudsters,
grifters
and
scams
During
the
wide-ranging
conversation
with
NYU
Law
Professor
Robert
Jackson,
Gensler
defended
his
agency’s
track
record
of
aggressive
enforcement
actions
against
crypto
companies.
“Without
a
cop
on
the
beat,
will
all
our
laws
be
enforced?”
Gensler
asked.
“It’s
something
about
human
nature.
In
finance
…
we
play
near
to
the
line.
…
We
sometimes
need
to
bring
the
enforcement
actions
to
bring
people
back
to
the
right
side
of
the
line.”
He
said
that
the
crypto
industry
was
rife
with
“a
lot
of
fraudsters,
a
lot
of
grifters,
a
lot
of
scams,”
adding:
“With
all
respect,
the
leading
lights
of
this
field
in
[2024]
are
either
in
jail
or
awaiting
extradition
right
now.”
Gensler
added
that
he
sees
no
need
for
additional
regulatory
framework
beyond
the
one
granted
by
the
Supreme
Court
in
1940:
the
Howey
Test.
“If
anybody
is
wondering
whether
[they]
might
meet
this
time-tested
test
of
what
is
an
investment
contract
…
think
about
it
this
way,
who
is
signing
the
engagement
letter
with
your
law
firm?
There’s
a
central
enterprise,
somebody
is
signing
that
engagement
letter.
Who
is
tapping
on
the
door
of
the
broker-dealer
saying,
‘Can
you
make
a
market
in
my
particular
asset?’
It
belies
logic
that
there’s
no
common
enterprise
at
most,”
Gensler
said.
Gensler
declined
to
comment
on
how
the
upcoming
presidential
election
could
impact
the
SEC,
or
whether
he
would
step
down
if
former
President
Trump
were
to
win
re-election.
