The Securities Act and the Exchange Act give the SEC broad latitude in regulating securities. The fundamental question is: is Bitcoin a security? The situation now is a bit like if the SEC tomorrow said Harry Potter books were securities, would bookstores suddenly become unlicensed securities exchanges?

> The fundamental question is: is Bitcoin a security?

https://www.coindesk.com/layer2/2022/06/28/secs-gensler-reit...

It's not a security.

It's not a commodity either.

It's money.

You may not agree with that and you may not like Bitcoin, but that doesn't change what it is.

Basically all of crypto passes Howey test for securities:

--- start quite ---

an instrument qualifies as an "investment contract" for the purposes of the Securities Act: "a contract, transaction or scheme whereby a person invests his money in a common enterprise and is led to expect profits solely from the efforts of the promoter or a third party."

--- end quote ---

I agree. All of crypto passes the Howey test for securities.

Bitcoin doesn't match that definition though. Who or what entity is the 'promoter' or 'third party' for Bitcoin? There's no registered entity, no (legitimate) foundation, no company, no CEO, no board, no chair. It's just a protocol.

Butcoin's main use case was HODL. You know, in the ancient times of just a few years ago.

And now you'd need an electron microscope to find its use cases as money.

No, just a regular set of eyes.

https://btcmap.org/map#3/0.00000/0.00000

Maybe try opening them?