Powers On… Don’t worry, Bitcoin’s adoption will not be stopped

In a series of  recent interviews and speeches, United States Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler has called the cryptocurrencies market the “Wild West” due to its unregulated and allegedly fraud-filled atmosphere, predicting that the coins were doomed to fail.

Powers On… is a monthly opinion column from Marc Powers, who spent much of his 40-year legal career working with complex securities-related cases in the United States after a stint with the SEC. He is now an adjunct professor at Florida International University College of Law, where he teaches a course on “Blockchain, Crypto and Regulatory Considerations.” 

In a Washington Post interview published Sept. 21, Gary Gensler stated that in history,  “private currencies” did not have longevity. As discussed below, I take issue with that statement. Now five months into his role leading this important governmental agency, Gensler is not only a powerful voice in the debate around blockchain use cases and regulatory considerations but also a dangerous one.

The concern for the crypto industry is that Gensler is a very bright and determined man, as well as ambitious. He hails from Wharton, Goldman Sachs and formerly worked in the U.S. Treasury before becoming the Chair of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CTFC), the SEC’s sister agency. While at the CFTC, he led what was probably the only federal agency to create and implement all the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Not all that surprising, as his bio also includes acting as a Special Adviser to the co-author of that legislation Senator Paul Sarbanes. 

I had the honor of knowing and working with the other co-author of that historic legislation Congressman Mike Oxley while at my law firm, BakerHostetler. Mike led our Government Affairs practice while I led our National Securities Litigation & Regulatory Enforcement practice.

The two-edged sword

Given this broad experience both in and out of our government, Gensler knows how to get things done politically. He also in recent years has learned and taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) courses on blockchain. 

SEC Chairman @GaryGensler on #Bitcoin 

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— Documenting Bitcoin