Gensler suggests staking token operators should ‘seek to come into compliance’

cointelegraph.com:

United States Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler has again suggested that proof-of-stake coins may be securities.

He expressed his view on March 15 after a commission meeting on cybersecurity issues.Gensler was asked by reporters about his reaction to statements made by Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Rostin Behnam at a Senate Agricultural Committee meeting last week that he felt stablecoin and Ether (ETH) were “going to be commodities.” Gensler replied, as reported in The Block:“Whatever they’re promoting and putting into a protocol, and locking up their tokens in a protocol, a protocol that’s often a small group of entrepreneurs and developers are developing, I would just suggest that each of these token operators [...] seek to come into compliance, and the same with the intermediaries," he continued.Gensler has voiced his opinion on proof-of-stake coins before.

In September, after the Ethereum Merge, Gensler said proof-of-stake coin holders were members of “the investing public anticipating profits based on the efforts of others.”️ Open Commission Meeting ️ Tomorrow, March 15th, at 10am ET we will have an @SECGov open meeting to discuss: Proposed changes to Regulation S-PA Proposed Cybersecurity Risk Management Rule Proposed changes to Regulation SCILater that month, Gensler told a Senate Banking Committee that staking is “another indicia that under the Howey test, the investing public is anticipating profits based on the efforts of others.” Related: Proof of Stake Alliance publishes white papers on legal aspects of liquidity staking The Howey test, which dates to 1946, is used in U.S.