Crypto Is the ‘Wild West,’ Gensler Tells US Army

“Most of these 10 or 15,000 tokens will fail,” Gensler said in a Wednesday Twitter spaces collaboration between the SEC and the Army

article-image

SEC Chair Gary Gensler | Source: Third Way "Gary Gensler" (CC license)

share

The latest audience to Gary Gensler’s long running crypto skepticism? The US Army. 

When it comes to speculative assets — which include digital ones, in the newest iteration of the SEC chair’s crypto critiques — Gensler remains skeptical as ever, he said during a Twitter spaces hosted by the Army on Wednesday.

In a session branded as financial advice for US service members, Gensler said most cryptocurrencies lack proper regulatory compliance and use cases. The crypto industry is the “Wild West,” per Gensler, adding, once again, that it’s easy to get caught up in “FOMO” swirling around the sector. Or at least the fear of missing out that was prevalent before the bear market.

Traders and companies should proceed with caution, Gensler said during the spaces, as most currencies are not currently abiding by the law. 

“Most of these, again, are not complying with the securities laws, but they should be,” Gensler said.

Gensler doubled down on many of his previous comments on Wednesday, saying that the value proposition for digital assets is just not there. 

“Most of these 10 or 15,000 tokens will fail,” Gensler said. “That’s because venture capital fails, new startups fail —  but also because history tells us that there’s not much room for micro currencies, meaning, you know, we have the US dollar and Europe has the euro and the like.” 

The sentiment highlights one key area of concern for Gensler and the SEC more broadly: how crypto tokens are classified. If cryptocurrencies are securities, they would fall under the SEC’s purview. 

Gensler’s office has issued a series of enforcement actions — most recently declaring FTX’s native FTT exchange token a security. They’ve escalated in recent months.

“The classification of FTT as a security is no surprise as it is in line with the LBRY action and the Ripple action,” Abiel Garcia, partner at Kesselman, Brantly & Stockinger LLP, told Blockworks last month. “It is clear that the SEC now believes crypto tokens can fall within the securities definition and plans to enforce that concept in full force.”

The SEC head has also placed crypto intermediaries on notice, suggesting that they need to register with the agency during his testimony before the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs in September. 

“Given that most crypto tokens are securities, it follows that many crypto intermediaries — whether they call themselves centralized or decentralized — are transacting in securities and have to register with the SEC in some capacity,” Gensler said during the September hearing.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

Ethena Labs is leaping from its flagship synthetic dollar, USDe, to a full product suite—USDtb, iUSDe, and the Arbitrum-based Converge Chain—designed to marry crypto-native yields with TradFi-grade compliance. Our analysis shows how expanding into CME, ETF options, and tokenized Treasuries could lift protocol revenue from sub-$500 million in a bear case to several billion dollars if favorable regulation and institutional adoption align.

article-image

The L1’s Interwoven Stack is the most opinionated tech stack yet

article-image

Bitcoin is still rising, 11 years after the documentary film The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin

article-image

Arch Labs CEO told Blockworks that the team plans to launch a native token, but declined to give details

article-image

CEO Mike Silagadze tells Blockworks that the US is “open for business” and why its DeFi bank offering is the first of many

article-image

Doing one thing well and leaving everything else out is often what disruptive technologies do best