Bitcoin is “real,” SEC chair Gary Gensler

Gary Gensler, the chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has declared that Bitcoin is as real as it gets and not just an obsession.

Gensler validated the blockchain revolution started by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. He believes that it offers a real value proposition for the future of the internet.

“I really do think there’s something real about the distributed ledger technology, moving value on the internet.”

Speaking in an interview with the Aspen Security Forum, Gensler expounded on his role at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he taught about the intersection of finance and technology.

Gensler developed the regulation of derivatives after the global financial crisis while he served as the chairperson of the Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). He also served as a key member of the Biden transition team where he helped map out plans for U.S. financial regulators as a successful Goldman Sachs investment banker for two decades.

Gensler, who assumed the role as SEC chair in June, suggested that assets like Bitcoin provide a different value proposition. However, he opined that no single cryptocurrency could broadly fulfill all the functions of fiat currencies like the dollar.

“Primarily, crypto assets provide digital, scarce vehicles for speculative investment. Thus, in that sense, one can say they are highly speculative stores of value.”