Outgoing SEC chairman Jay Clayton, who oversaw the rejection of nine Bitcoin ETFs during his tenure, told CNBC that “inaccuracies” in existing payment systems continue to drive Bitcoin’s popularity.
Present on CNBC’s Squawk Bux Yesterday Clayton, who was due to step down by the end of the year, confirmed his agency’s general assessment that Bitcoin was not a security but a collection of payment methods and value.
“We decided that Bitcoin was no security, it was more than a method of payment and stored value,” says SEC President Jay Clayton. # BTC. “Our current payment methods – the incompetence is the incompetence – these are the things that are driving the rise of Bitcoin.” pic.twitter.com/3r1mxzfgpi
– Squawk Box X (@ squawcnnbc) November 19, 2020
The president has been widely criticized for his tight grip on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency by the Bitcoin community. However, during his years as SEC chairman, Clayton was never a staunch opponent of Bitcoin in principle, but there were regular fears that investing in Bitcoin ETFs could pose an unnecessary risk to the average investor.
This risk is due to the SEC’s notion that the largely unregulated nature of some bitcoin exchanges makes it much easier to manipulate BTC prices. Clayton S.E.C. Being out as chairman, some bitcoin proponents Believe The chances of Bitcoin ETFs getting approval are higher now than ever before.
Just in: SEC chairman Jay Clayton will step down in December.
This is a big deal for crypto regulation.
Clayton’s successor will eventually approve or disapprove of the Bitcoin ETF.
Let’s hope the new chair understands innovation
– Yano (@JasonAnovitz) November 16, 2020
Clayton believes that Bitcoin will continue to grow, as rules evolve.
What we are seeing is that our current payment methods, domestically and internationally, are imperfect. Those inefficiencies are the things that are driving the rise of Bitcoin … and we’ll go see more of them. We’re going to see this mature and we’re going to see more regulation around the digital payment location.
Clayton was the first member of the SEC to attend the 2017 ICO. During the craze the ICO warned about the potential pitfalls of investing, and reminded people that such products were generally considered as the Ings fur of securities and were subject to the rules with them.
“We did not regulate Bitcoin as a security,” Clayton said, adding that BTC was more of a “payment mechanism and store value” than security.
When people use crypto assets as securities to raise capital for an venture, the SEC regulates it. And ICO. What happened in the no craze was that people were using ICO and S.E.C. Ings of public securities were furring without registering with.
Clayton was nominated for the SEC chair by President Donald Trump in January 2017 and is leaving one of the agency’s longest-serving chairs. In June 2020, Clayton was nominated by Trump to replace the outgoing United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, a position he says he sought in view of his strong desire to continue his career in the public service.
