Former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler reiterated his long-standing caution to investors about the risks of digital assets, calling most cryptocurrencies “highly speculative” in a new Bloomberg interview on Tuesday.
Gensler distinguished Bitcoin, which he has previously likened to a commodity, from the broader crypto market, emphasizing that most tokens lack “a dividend” or any “usual returns.”
He framed today’s market conditions as a predictable reckoning, echoing warnings he issued while in office that global enthusiasm for crypto does not necessarily reflect underlying fundamentals.
“All the thousands of other tokens — not the stablecoins backed by U.S. dollars, but all the thousands of other tokens — you have to ask, what are the fundamentals? What’s underlying it? … The investing public just needs to be aware of those risks,” Gensler said.
Gensler’s Record and Industry Pushback
Gensler served as SEC Chair from April 17, 2021, to Jan. 20, 2025, presiding over an aggressive crypto enforcement agenda that brought lawsuits against major intermediaries and asserted that many tokens were unregistered securities.
The industry bristled at high-profile actions targeting exchanges and staking programs, as well as the Commission’s stance that most token issuers were violating registration requirements.
Under Gensler’s leadership, the SEC sued Coinbase, alleging it operated as an unregistered exchange, broker, and clearing agency, and that its staking-as-a-service program constituted an unregistered securities offering. Kraken also shut down its U.S. staking program and paid a $30 million penalty as part of a settlement with the agency.
The Politicization of Crypto
Asked about the increasing political tone surrounding crypto, including the Trump family’s involvement cited by the Bloomberg interviewer, Gensler dismissed the idea that digital assets have become a partisan issue.
“No, I don’t think so,” he said, arguing that the debate is rooted more in capital markets fairness and “commonsense rules of the road” than in a Democrat-versus-Republican divide.
He added that when investors buy or sell stocks or bonds, they expect clear information and equal treatment to institutional players — principles he says underpin the U.S. financial system.
ETFs and the Drift Toward Centralization
On the topic of exchange-traded funds, Gensler said that throughout history, finance “goes toward centralization,” making it unsurprising that an industry founded on decentralization has become “more integrated and more centralized.”
He pointed out that investors have long been able to access gold and silver exposure through ETFs, and that during his tenure, the SEC approved the first U.S. Bitcoin futures ETFs, further connecting parts of the crypto ecosystem to traditional financial infrastructure.
Gensler’s latest remarks reinforce a familiar stance: Bitcoin occupies a separate category, while most other cryptocurrencies remain, in his view, speculative assets lacking solid fundamentals.
Even after leaving office, his framing continues to reverberate across courts, compliance desks, and investment committees, all weighing Bitcoin’s evolving status against ongoing regulatory caution toward altcoins.
