The Chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler, showed his cards. He spoke with legacy-media-operation The Washington Post and host David Ignatius for their series “The Path Forward” and spilled the beans. We at NewsBTC saw the whole interview so you don’t have to. We selected the most crucial quotes, and present them in all their splendor for you all to read them and reach your own conclusions.
Of course, we’re going to offer our two cents. We’re not made of steel. In general, though, you’ll get Gary Gensler’s unadulterated words. They’re shocking enough as it is.
Gary Gensler Is Looking Directly At Stablecoins
Even though host David Ignatius had no questions about stablecoins, the topic was on Gensler’s mind. The SEC’s Chair brought it up a couple of times. First, he said:
On something called stablecoins, and how the banking agencies–and we, too, market agencies–coordinate because these stablecoins may have attributes of investment contracts, have some attributes like banking products, but the banking authorities right now don’t have the full gamut of what they need.”
But his organization is not only thinking about stablecoins and trying to define them and isolate their attributes. They’re preparing a formal document:
“We’re working right now under the guidance of Secretary Yellen and working on a report around stablecoins, and in the world of stablecoins, I do think that there would be some help from Congress.”
This doesn’t seem that bad. Their report could conclude that stablecoins are a useful innovation and tool that the whole financial system can benefit from, right? Wrong. This is what Gensler and the SEC think about stablecoins, and pay attention to the language:
“These stablecoins are acting almost like poker chips at the casino right now; so, add to the Wild West analogy. I mean, we’ve got a lot of casinos here in the Wild West and the poker chip is these stablecoins, you know, at the casino gaming tables.”
Things are about to get interesting for stablecoins, it seems.