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- 1 As a professor at MIT in 2018, Gary Gensler said that Ethereum is not a security as per SEC.
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In another lecture, Gensler says around 3/4th of crypto assets are not securities.
The recent enforcement actions by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) apparently lashing out at the crypto industry, but the SEC chair Gary Gensler had different views in 2018. Recently a video resurfaced on Twitter, showing the top regulator lecturing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on September 25, 2018. At the MIT lecture, then Professor Gensler said in the eyes of the SEC, Ethereum is not a Security.
Gensler Had Different Views for Ethereum in 2018
The U.S. SEC chair Gary Gensler changed his perception about labeling Ethereum as a security. But he seemed very confident during his tenure as an MIT professor in 2018. At press time, Ethereum was trading at $1,902.15 with a slight drop of 0.87%, value against Bitcoin dipped by 0.26% to 0.06473 BTC, its market was $228 Billion after suffering 0.82%, and volume suffered 31.99% to $7.0 Billion, in the last 24 hours.
At the time of the lecture, Gary Gensler was a professor at MIT, a civilian, and was far from holding the chair at the SEC. His statements can be considered to rely on the opinions of the financial watchdog back in 2018. His ideas are similar to the former director of Corporate Affairs, William Hinman, specifically his much-cited “Sufficiently Decentralized” speech in June 2018.
Interestingly during an appearance before the House Oversight Committee, a duel occurred between the SEC chair Gary Gensler and Rep. Patrick McHenry. Gary was repeatedly asked to provide his opinion on whether Ethereum should be classified as a security or not. He was even confronted with Hinman’s speech of 2018, but Gensler refused to answer questions.
Another video surfaced in which then MIT professor Gary Gensler was lecturing the Fall 2018 Graduate MIT course named “Blockchain and Money.” Where he can be seen saying that around three-quarters of the crypto market is made up of non-securities; however, this statement now contradicts his statement as the SEC chair, from August 2021, at a conference hosted by the Aspen Institute, where he said that a “vast majority” of tokens in crypto are securities.
While many in the industry criticize the difference between the two views, a lawyer, Preston Byrne, said that Gensler’s statement as a professor and the SEC chair differs.
“As a professor, he can talk about what things are in abstract, but as a law enforcer, he’s required to enforce the laws as they are written.”
The SEC has been very strict on the crypto industry for some time; the infamous case of SEC vs. Ripple has been going on since December 2020. The agency says that XRP is security while Ripple is fighting against the claim. Since Ethereum shifted from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) with the Merge, they invited the stern eyes of the agencies as they are trying to determine if the new mechanism makes ETH security.
Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while pursuing his post-graduation major in blockchain development. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing, along with coding. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing skills, and a reliable craft at explaining the concepts such as blockchain programming, languages and token minting. He also frequently shares technical details and performance indicators of ICOs and IDOs.
