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SEC’s Gensler Signals Extra Scrutiny for Proof-of-Stake Cryptocurrencies: Report
Speaking after the Merge (but not specifically about Ethereum), SEC Chair Gary Gensler said proof-of-stake cryptos could be investment contracts that subject them to securities regulations.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler on Thursday said that staked cryptocurrencies may be subject to federal securities regulations, repeating a pro-oversight stance in the wake of Ethereum’s transition to just such a method.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Gensler said that proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains, which generate new coins for inventors who pool their holdings, take on investment contract-like attributes that could bring them under his agency’s purview. He said he wasn’t talking about a specific coin, according to the Journal.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Still, the comments, which came hours after Ethereum completed its PoS transition via the Merge, indicate that the milestone tech upgrade may carry greater ramifications for the second-most popular blockchain than simply cutting its energy usage. As a proof-of-work chain, its native ether token was one of only two cryptos – the other being bitcoin – clearly defined as commodities by federal regulators.
Read more: CFTC Already Preparing to Be Crypto Watchdog, Behnam Tells US Senators
Danny Nelson
Danny is CoinDesk's managing editor for Data & Tokens. He formerly ran investigations for the Tufts Daily. At CoinDesk, his beats include (but are not limited to): federal policy, regulation, securities law, exchanges, the Solana ecosystem, smart money doing dumb things, dumb money doing smart things and tungsten cubes. He owns BTC, ETH and SOL tokens, as well as the LinksDAO NFT.
