Gary Gensler, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), confirmed that the regulator views bitcoin as a commodity. He made the announcement on CNBC.

Gensler reminded that cryptocurrencies are a speculative asset class. He added that when people invest in “Bitcoin and hundreds of other tokens,” they hope to make a profit.

According to him, many of these “crypto-financial assets” have the fundamental characteristics of securities and are managed by the Commission.

“Some are like bitcoin, and that’s all I’m going to say because I don’t intend to discuss any of these tokens, but my predecessors and others have said they are a commodity,” Gensler said.

Supporters of the first cryptocurrency reacted positively to the SEC chief’s statement.

“Gensler became the second consecutive SEC chairman to qualify bitcoin as a commodity, making it nearly impossible to change that classification in the future. It’s really important,” wrote Eric Weiss, founder of Blockchain Investment Group.

Gensler is 2 consecutive SEC Chairs who have declared this. #Bitcoin It is a commodity that makes it almost impossible to change this classification in the future. It’s really meaningful. https://t.co/pe6lNPq1EN

— Eric Weiss ⚡️ (@Eric_BIGfund) 27 June 2022

Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy declarationIt will allow “politicians, agencies, governments and institutions to support bitcoin as a technology and digital asset to grow the economy and extend property rights and freedom to all.”

Analyst ETFs James Seiffart at Bloomberg Intelligence described Gensler’s comment as “not news, but absolutely positive.” But in his view, that won’t be enough for the SEC to approve the conversion of the Grayscale bitcoin trust into a spot exchange-traded fund next week. “The chance is close to zero,” he added.

This is not new from Gensler, definitely positive IMO. Unfortunately this is not sufficient for approval $GBTCconverting to a point #Bitcoin ETFs. The chances of SEC approval next week (or this week) are close to zero in our opinion. https://t.co/mvRnkajGdd

— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) 27 June 2022

Seyffart’s view supported his colleague Eric Balciunas estimates the probability that the regulator will make a positive decision on GBTC’s transformation at 0.5%.

In February, Gensler stated that the reason the SEC rejected all applications to launch a spot bitcoin ETF was because they failed to comply with securities law standards to prevent fraudulent or manipulative practices.

During the interview, the head of the SEC talked about working with other federal agencies to oversee the cryptocurrency industry. CFTC and banking regulators.

To this end, the Commission intends to sign formal agreements with them.

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