Bitcoin Isn’t A Security Yet But Regulation Is Coming: Ex SEC Chairman

Bitcoin isn’t a security yet but more regulation is coming its way, at least according to former SEC chairman Jay Clayton as we can see more in our latest Bitcoin news today.

His comments came out as Ripple urged the SEC to examine BTC and ETH in the defense of their XRP native token. Bitcoin isn’t a security yet but it doesn’t mean that it won’t be regulated as former US Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Jay Clayton explained. Clayton is now an advisor to One River Asset Management on crypto and said that BTC is not security before he joined the SEC but now the regulation is inevitable:

 “[Bitcoin not being a security] does not mean that it should not be regulated. In fact, where digital assets land at the end of the day, which is very much a wide-ranging question, will be driven in part by regulation—both domestic and international—and I expect, and I’m speaking as a citizen now, that regulation will come in this area both directly and indirectly whether it’s through how these are held by banks, security accounts, taxation and the like.”

"Where digital assets land at the end of the day–will be driven in part by regulation both domestic and international, and I expect that regulation will come in this area both directly and indirectly," says Former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton on #bitcoin. pic.twitter.com/voWcgCFqOH

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) April 1, 2021

Clayton’s comments came as Ripple which is the third-most capitalized crypto on the market asked the SEC to reexamine BTC and ETH so now Ripple wants the court to compel the SEC to share its internal discussions about ETH and BTC hoping to improve its own case for their coin. Ripple is facing a billion-dollar lawsuit from the SEC that filed its complaint before Clayton stepped down as a chairman. The Commission alleged that the company raised $1.3 billion in unregistered sales of XRP which the SEC said was security known as an investment contract.

Ripple said that XRP is not a security but a cryptocurrency. the company is now trying to fight the SEC’s lawsuit on these grounds. As a part of the defense, Ripple asserted that the SEC should class XRP as a virtual currency like it classes BTC and ET as virtual currencies as well. The lawsuit proves to be detrimental for the company and for the coin as the top crypto exchanges like Kraken, Binance and Coinbase halted XRP trading. The price of the crypto dropped and fell down on the list of top cryptocurrencies by market cap, to the seventh position in a matter of months.