The U.S. SEC Chair, Gary Gensler has taken the next available opportunity to launch another attack on BTC and the altcoins, according to a new interview he had with CNBC.
Gensler has said that Bitcoin's major use cases are for illegal activities and that the cryptocurrency lacks any real value.
Gensler also questioned the idea of Bitcoin as an asset class, saying that the "decentralization" of BTC might not be valid and that the approval of the Bitcoin ETFs does not count as endorsements from the SEC.
Here are all the details of Gensler's scathing take on BTC.
In the CNBC interview, Gensler mentioned the recent Bitcoin ETF approvals from January, last month.
The SEC chair says that the SEC's approval of these Bitcoin spot ETFs does not mean that the agency in any way, approves of BTC as an asset class.
Gelsler reiterated that the role of the SEC is to protect investors and that the spot ETF approvals were simply based on the merits of the specific applications, not on the merits of Bitcoin itself.
"But as we like to say, we're merit neutral. This was not in any way like an approval of Bitcoin," Gensler said.
He continued by saying that the SEC is still considering several additional applications for Ethereum and BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs), but he did not want to predict how those evaluations would turn out. He said that a panel consisting of five people, not just himself, would make the ultimate decision.
Moreso, Gensler fired more shots at BTC, by stating that the cryptocurrency is mostly used for illegal purposes like tax evasion, money laundering, and ransomware assaults.
According to him, ransomware has the largest market share in Bitcoin.
"It is—it's the leading market share—it's the leading market share in ransomware, and that's publicly known"
Additionally, he argued that speculation, not innovation or usefulness, is what draws most people to Bitcoin. He said that BTC is unbacked by any central authority or government and has no inherent value. He asserted that there is a true economic difference between BTC and major national currencies like the US dollar, the euro, and the yen.
The idea that Bitcoin is decentralized, was also attacked by the SEC chair. According to him, a small number of entities, including developers, exchanges, and miners, control a significant portion of the network and its pricing.
Moreover, he mentioned the high frequency of fraud and bankruptcy cases in the cryptocurrency space, warning investors that they run a serious danger of suffering losses. Citing the failures of crypto companies like Mt. Gox, QuadrigaCX, and Bitfinex, Gensler reiterated that investors are often left holding nothing.
A full transcript of the interview can be found here.
BTC broke above the $50,000 zone pretty effortlessly this week and is currently testing the $52,000 resistance.
However, according to a Twitter/X thread from analyst, Cole Garner, Bitcoin may have just hit a "brick wall" at this $52,000 zone.
Garner says that there is a massive brick wall from the sellers on BitFinex, all the way up to $52.3. The analyst opined that the inflows into the ETFs are doing a very good job at picking against this wall, but "BitFinex is replenishing the wall much faster than demand can swallow it".
He even goes further to say that "all (Bitcoin's) price can do is bounce off that".
At the time of writing, BTC trades at around $52,200, and the behaviour of the bulls around this price level that Garner mentions, remains to be seen.
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