Current Bitcoin and Ether prices are in the green while U.S. Securities and Exchange Chair Gary Gensler testifies before Congress.

What Happened: Bitcoin BTC/USD and Ethereum ETH/USD prices are trading almost 4% higher currently as Gensler appears before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. See video below via PBS:

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Gensler maintained his earlier stance that “there is nothing about the crypto asset securities markets that suggests that investors and issuers are less deserving of the protections of our securities laws.”

The crypto market has the right to get the protections of the U.S. securities laws as it forms a part of the term, investment contract which is part of an overall list of more than 30 items under the definition of the term, security.

He adds that the “majority of the crypto tokens likely meet the investment contract test. And as the securities laws apply, most crypto intermediaries must comply with securities laws as well.”

The other areas of discussion at the hearing are predictive data analytics and issuer disclosure rules regarding climate and cyber risks.

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