Michael Saylor: SEC Will Treat Ether as Security, Reject ETFs
Stay informed on the latest insights regarding cryptocurrencies like Ether, BNB, SOL, XRP, and ADA potentially being classified as unregistered securities by the SEC.
MicroStrategy executive chair Michael Saylor suggested that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may consider cryptocurrencies like Ether, BNB, Solana’s SOL, XRP, and Cardano’s ADA as unregistered securities.
Speaking at MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin For Corporations conference on May 1, Saylor predicted the SEC would prevent the listing and trading of spot Ether exchange-traded funds. He believes the SEC would classify ETH as a crypto asset security within its regulatory scope, rather than as a commodity under the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
According to Saylor, other tokens like BNB, SOL, XRP, and ADA could also be labeled as unregistered crypto asset securities. “None of [these tokens] will ever be wrapped by a spot ETF, none of them will be accepted by Wall Street, none of them will be accepted by mainstream institutional investors as crypto assets,” he stated.
#Bitcoin - There is No Second Best pic.twitter.com/PLDgwGwF9J — Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) May 2, 2024
Saylor’s comments came amid questions about whether the SEC would approve the listing and trading of spot Ether ETFs on U.S. exchanges. The initial deadlines for ETF applications from VanEck and ARK Invest are set for May 23 and May 24, respectively.
In a lawsuit filed by Consensys, unredacted portions suggested the SEC began investigating Ether as a security as early as March 2023. At an April 2023 hearing, SEC Chair Gary Gensler dodged direct questions about whether Ether was a security, even though previous statements implied otherwise.
Saylor is a vocal supporter of Bitcoin and played a key role in MicroStrategy's acquisition of the cryptocurrency as a reserve asset. As of April 30, the company held 214,400 BTC—valued at over $13 billion at the time of writing.
