Community Reaction After US SEC Chairman Affirms BTC’s Commodity Status

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler angered crypto Twitter on Monday after affirming that bitcoin is a commodity. Some have questioned its implications for Grayscale's proposed Bitcoin ETF, and why no mention of Ethereum was made.

On Monday, June 27, the chairman of the US SEC told Jim Cramer on CNBC's Squawk Box that while many encrypted financial assets have key attributes of securities, Bitcoin is "the only one" that he is willing to publicly label as a commodity assets.

“Some, like Bitcoin — that’s the only thing I’m going to say, because I’m not going to talk about any of those coins, but ex-SEC chairmen and others have said they’re commodities.”

Grayscale Bitcoin ETF

The comments sparked discussion of Grayscale’s application to convert its bitcoin trust into a spot-based exchange-traded fund (ETF), with the U.S. SEC expected to make a decision on July 6.

James Seyffart, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, told his 19,300 Twitter followers that while Gensler's comments were positive for bitcoin, they might not be enough to see Grayscale's bitcoin spot ETF approved next week.

Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, made similar comments, noting that there is only a 0.5% chance that Grayscale’s GBTC will be allowed to convert into an ETF.

No mention of ETH

The crypto-twitter also noted that Gensler did not mention whether he considered ethereum a commodity, although the regulator and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CTFC) had previously favored the asset as a commodity like bitcoin.

Positive for Bitcoin

Nonetheless, Gensler’s take on Bitcoin is seen as a positive for Bitcoin.

Bitcoin bull Michael Saylor shared a video of Gensler's interview with his 2.5 million Twitter followers, adding that Bitcoin is essential as a treasury reserve asset, which will allow governments and institutions to back it as a digital currency. assets to develop the economy.

Meanwhile, Blockchain Investment Group founder Eric Weiss noted on Twitter that Gensler is the second US SEC chairman to declare Bitcoin a commodity, making it nearly impossible for the classification to change in the future.

Interestingly, this positive news caused the price of Bitcoin to fall again, falling from a 24-hour high of $21,478 to $20,635 at the time of writing.

Ethereum has fallen from a 24-hour high of $1234 to $1171 at the time of writing, as bears remain firmly in control of the market.