Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler suggested to reporters on Wednesday that tokens using staking protocols could be considered securities under U.S. law. 

"The investing public is investing anticipating a return, anticipating something on these tokens, whether they're proof-of-stake tokens, where they're also looking to get returns on those proof-of-stake tokens and getting 2%, 4%, 18% returns,"  Gensler said. "Whatever they're promoting and putting into a protocol, and locking up their tokens in a protocol, a protocol that's often a small group of entrepreneurs and developers are developing, I would just suggest that each of these token operators ... seek to come into compliance, and the same with the intermediaries." 

Gensler made the remarks after being asked for his reaction to statements made last week by Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Rostin Behnam, who reiterated his own belief, and that of his agency, that ether is a commodity.