The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler was grilled on his stance on the bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets in a wide-ranging congressional testimony on Wednesday, where he lashed out at crypto "hucksters" operating within the market.
However, Gensler was wishy-washy about certain pressing issues facing the crypto markets, which the regulatory body that he oversees has significant influence over.
He reiterated his stance that bitcoin is not a security, though did not go as far as acknowledging that it’s a commodity.
Gensler also failed to provide clarity on the ongoing debate around spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which the securities regulator has long been hesitant to approve.
After a favourable August court ruling for Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which called the SEC’s stance on bitcoin ETFs “arbitrary and capricious”, Gensler was still unwilling to clarify his position.
Amid a lack of firm guidance, the bitcoin spot markets had a fairly volatile Wednesday trading session, having hit an intraday high of $26,800 before reverting back below $26,400 before the midnight bell.
Bitcoin remained buoyant in early Thursday trades though, adding 0.6% as of midday.
Bitcoin leaps above $26,500 – Source: tradingview.com
The second-largest cryptocurrency Ethereum (ETH) leapt even higher this morning, adding nearly 2% to bring its spot price to a seven-day high of $1,630.
In the broader altcoin space, Binance’s BNB token and Tron (TRX) remain in the green on a weekly basis, while Ripple (XRP), Cardano (ADA) Dogecoin (DOGE) and Solana (SOL) have tipped into the red.
The combined cryptocurrency markets are currently valued at $1.06 trillion, with bitcoin dominance sitting at 49.85%.