Gary Gensler, We Will Miss You
Date: 2024-10-16 Author: Oliver Abernathy Categories: IN WORLD
SEC chief Gary Gensler took to the stage at NYU Law School on Wednesday, sounding like he’s finally ready to speak his mind. His comments on the cryptocurrency industry were at once broad, at times patently wrong, and deeply disappointing for the industry’s prospects.
Gensler, like Alan Greenspan when he was Fed chief, rarely gives long answers. He’s a cautious technocrat. But that wasn’t the case on Wednesday.
He said cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum are unlikely to be used as payment methods.
“I taught this at MIT and so forth, so I’ll say this: This debate goes back to Plato and Aristotle,” he said. “That’s 3,000 years of history. Hundreds of great nations, thousands of states — we tend to have one currency for every economic state. We’re not even bimetallistic.”
In other words, Gensler believes that governments control money, and that economies function better when they only use one government-issued currency. While that may be true, it’s puzzling for the chairman of the SEC to make such a statement. He’s clearly not basing his thinking on what might be possible or better in the future, but on the past, when there was no electricity, much less the internet.
Gensler noted that the crypto industry has spawned “a lot of scammers and fraudsters,” which is a fact. But then he added, “With respect, the leading figures in this space in [2024] are either in jail or awaiting extradition.” That’s patently wrong. We may define “leading figures” differently, but despite all the SEC’s actions, most of the industry’s leaders are free and active. Changpeng Zhao (CZ) is free. Vitalik Buterin is developing his “world computer” concept. Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong just got married.
Sure, some 2022-era scammers like Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) are behind bars. But few in the crypto community today consider him a leader.
