The Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler has described Bitcoin as a commodity.

During a CNBC interview, Gensler said on Monday that Bitcoin – the world’s largest cryptocurrency – was the only one he would publicly call a commodity, rather than a security.

Gensler commented: “Many of these tokens…the investing public is hoping for a return just like when they invest in other financial assets we call securities,” he said in an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box. “Many of these financial assets, crypto financial assets have the key attributes of a security,” and are thus under the jurisdiction of the SEC.

“Some like Bitcoin, and that’s the only one I’m gonna say…my predecessors and others have said, they’re a commodity,” he went on to say.

“There’s two great market regulators in this country,” Gensler said, adding that the agencies should work together to bring “fairness, transparency and investor protection to markets for digital assets,” reports Market Watch.

deVere CEO Nigel Green said of Gensler’s statements: “The comments from Gary Gensler clears up years of debate. One of the world’s most influential regulators has now confirmed that it views Bitcoin as a commodity, in the same way gold is, and not a security.

“The financial watchdog said that many tokens on the market have the key attributes of securities, which puts them under the jurisdiction of the SEC, but not Bitcoin.”

He added: “As a commodity in the U.S., Bitcoin would fall under the oversight of The Commodities Futures Trading Commission.”

Prices for digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum – the world’s second largest by market cap – have reported substantial declines over the past few weeks. However, they are now showing indications of stabilisation.

In the last six months, Bitcoin has fallen almost 60%, but has risen around 1% over the past week, as per FactSet data.