SEC vs BTC? Former SEC attorney says BTC is a security
According to a recent tweet from John Reed Stark, the former director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Internet Enforcement, bitcoin may be trading as an unregistered security.
Stark reacted after seeing a message on Twitter by ethereum supporter Evan Van Ness regarding the concentration of the bitcoin mining industry.Â
“And once more, why does bitcoin not qualify as a security that has to be registered with the SEC?”
John Reed Stark. former SEC attorney
Van Ness took to Twitter to say that only five companies, Antpool, FoundryUSA, f2pool, ViaBTC, and Binance, had mined 850 of the previous 1,000 blocks on the Bitcoin network. According to data, these companies produce more than 80% of all blocks, and more than 50% of that output is split between Antpool and FoundryUSA.
When U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler restated his conviction that bitcoin (BTC) is a commodity earlier this year, bitcoin supporters were jubilant. Gensler’s comments supported the idea that bitcoin should be viewed separately from other tokens classified as “crypto” as previously held.
Is the SEC coming for crypto?
Currently engaged in a lawsuit with ripple, the SEC made several headlines while coming at different crypto entities, most notably its ongoing case with ripple and its recent attack on HEX. The recent statement by the former SEC official could ignite another attack on bitcoin by the SEC.
With the anticipation of what the verdict will be, John Deaton, a pro-XRP activist and cryptocurrency lawyer, has asked his followers how they anticipate the SEC v. ripple lawsuit will end. Most people now think that the case will end in a settlement, not a verdict.
Amid all the drama, SEC’s next move is hard to predict. 2023 will be an interesting year for crypto regulation and may prove to be a watershed year for US-based crypto investors as the SEC makes new regulations.
