CoinGeek’s Chief Bitcoin Historian Kurt Wuckert Jr. has been making quite a few high-profile TV appearances lately. This week, he joined Fox Business to discuss whether there’s a difference between Ethereum and XRP. The segment opened with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler, followed by Kurt who shared his views on the debate.
⁉️Is there a difference between Ethereum and XRP? @kurtwuckertjr explains👇#FoxBusiness @FoxBusiness
https://t.co/05fTErK6KY pic.twitter.com/rCl3Y0lq3Z— diego @52577 (@InvestWithDiego) February 17, 2022
What did Gary Gensler say on the Ethereum vs. XRP debate?
The segment kicked off with a recap of the SEC vs. Ripple lawsuit. The Claman Countdown host Liz Claman wanted to know why the SEC has filed suit against Ripple for selling XRP but hasn’t held Ethereum to the same standards. Claman pointed out that Ripple selling XRP to build out its underlying blockchain infrastructure is no different than Ethereum’s initial coin offering (ICO). She asked Gensler to defend his position on this.
Gensler answered that his position is straightforward; raise money from the public in a fair and transparent way with fraud protections and register with the SEC to keep things legal. He emphasized that the SEC is technology-neutral and wasn’t against investment and speculation, but that it must be done within the law.
This response did not directly answer the question as to why XRP and Ethereum are viewed differently by the SEC. That’s often what happens on short-form shows with limited time segments for each speaker.
What did Kurt say about the situation?
Kurt didn’t waste any time getting to the point. In his opinion, there’s no real difference between XRP and Ethereum. Ethereum was arguably the first ICO, and Vitalik Buterin himself said it was done to raise money so that they could create Ethereum 2.0.
Kurt also emphasized that the opinion that Ethereum is not a security is mainly based on the opinion of William Hinman. He said that it barely escaped classification as a security because of proof of work. However, since Ethereum is changing to a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm, that argument is now “paper-thin at best.”
Claman pointed out that there was a lot of disagreement within the SEC between William Hinman and Jay Clayton and that Gensler had largely inherited this issue without a clear resolution. She said she doesn’t see how he can go after Ripple (XRP) without going after Ethereum or at least appearing to do so.
Kurt agreed with this. He also added that he’s generally a fan of Gensler and his approach to the situation. He said he’d shown care for the process and wasn’t the type to just try and regulate everything into compliance.
What about a BTC spot ETF?
Claman then asked Kurt for his thoughts on a BTC spot ETF. She noted that it took something close to seven years for the S&P ETF to come into existence and wondered if it might be a long road ahead for a BTC spot ETF.
Kurt replied that “paper Bitcoin” doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. He thinks that an ETF is not needed to gain exposure to BTC and believes that regulators may see things the same way.
BTC price predictions and how wrong maximalists have been
Claman then asked Kurt for his predictions regarding BTC this year. She noted that price predictions from maximalists, some of whom were calling for $100,000+ by now, are way off target.
Kurt replied that he hadn’t been a BTC bull for a long time. He noted that the breakout of $20,000 has never been retested and that BTC flew higher amidst the ‘meme stonk’ craze, Elon Musk putting it on Tesla’s books, and the more recent NFT euphoria.
“People need to cool off and reassess what the technology is actually for,” Kurt said. “We can speculate forever, but at some point, there needs to be value creation and not just value absorption. We’ve seen 13 years of value absorption,” he said.
Watch Kurt Wuckert Jr. on Fox Business here:
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