In a recent interview, the chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, clarified that the agency has no plans to introduce new rules for evaluating cryptocurrencies.
Gensler emphasized that, aside from Bitcoin, the SEC considers all other crypto assets to be securities.
He reminded the crypto community that the native tokens of staking networks would be treated as securities because the public investing in them expects a return based on the efforts of other market participants, as per the Howey Test.
The Howey Test asserts that an asset becomes an investment contract when it is created and sold for future profits through the activities of a third party.
While the crypto community has criticized the SEC for the lack of regulatory documents or guidelines that explain the prospects for the issuance and turnover of assets, Gensler dismissed such rhetoric, stating that the existing rules are enough.
Critics argue that the Howey Test is outdated and cannot be applied to products of new high-tech industries.
According to enthusiasts, if the Howey Test is defined, then all crypto assets issued on the basis of the Ethereum blockchain look like securities, which could have devastating consequences for new and existing crypto projects.
Gensler drew attention to the fact that a number of crypto projects are trying to avoid possible pressure from the agency by marking their assets as utility or governance tokens.
However, Gensler reiterated that simply marking a digital asset as a utility token does not exempt it from being considered a security.
His predecessor, William Hinman, had already assessed such efforts as failing.
Recently, former Goldman Sachs top manager and CEO of Real Vision, Raoul Pal, expressed concern that regulatory problems will force leading US cryptocurrency companies to move their business to other regions of the planet.