House committee chair blasts SEC’s Gensler on defining Ether: ‘You won’t answer my question, and you’re the head of that agency’

Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) (Credit: Tom Williams—CQ–Roll Call Inc./Getty Images)

U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) began with a brief timeline.

“Back in 2018,” said the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, at a Tuesday hearing, “then-SEC Corporation Finance Director Bill Hinman stated that he believed Ether was not a security. Last month, CFTC Chair [Rostin] Behnam expressed his view that Ether is a commodity. The state attorney general of New York asserted in a court filing last month that Ether is a security. Clearly, an asset cannot be both a commodity and security. Do you agree?”