US financial watchdog affirms Bitcoin is a “store of value”

In an interview with CNBC's Squawk Box on Thursday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) outgoing chairman, Jay Clayton, noted that Bitcoin is a payment mechanism and a "store of value."

Bitcoin is a store of value

While commenting on a clip showing JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon claiming that the US government will regulate Bitcoin if it gets bigger, "we did not regulate Bitcoin as a security," Clayton clarified and said that the SEC regulates it when people use crypto assets as securities to raise capital for a venture.

"We determined that Bitcoin was not a security, it was much more a payment mechanism and a store of value," Clayton added and reminded that the government does regulate payments. According to the chairman, the inefficiencies seen in the current payment mechanisms have been driving the digital assets like Bitcoin and more regulation is likely to come into the payment space.

On a similar note, Cynthia Lummis, first woman Senator-elect from Wyoming, told Fox News earlier in the week that one of her top priorities was to explain to her colleagues how Bitcoin is a great store of value. "It's something that Americans can use to diversify their assets and to make sure that they have assets that don't have inflation built into them just the way the US dollar does," Lummis further elaborated.