SEC Chair Gary Gensler is putting his foot down on crypto regulation. Speaking at a conference of attorneys, he made his view clear: Most tokens are securities, not commodities.

Crypto firms need to register with the SEC, Gensler said yesterday; the agency’s oversight shouldn’t change if a token is “based on a new technology.”

• Bitcoin and ether may be an exception to this rule, but that conversation will continue next week when a Senate committee holds a hearing on a bill that would declare both as commodities under the CFTC’s purview.

This might sound familiar. The SEC had previously asserted in lawsuits that several cryptocurrencies are securities, stoking the anger of the crypto industry for regulating by enforcement rather than creating new rules.

• The Treasury Department is also putting pressure on the White House for more crypto regulation, warning in four separate reports this month that the risks of digital assets outweigh the benefits.

Gensler’s tough stance is significant: It’s the biggest step the SEC has taken so far to tighten its reins on the crypto industry, signaling that the SEC is done being badgered by the industry for meticulous and detailed guidance. “Not liking the message isn’t the same thing as not receiving it,” Gensler said.

• “Gensler is like the government equivalent of me telling my kids, ‘No matter how many times you ask, you are not getting ice cream for dinner. I said what I said, stop asking and leave me alone,’” Protocol Policy editor Kate Cox told me.

At the end of the day, though, Gensler doesn’t get the final say anyway. Congress and the courts will also have a chance to weigh in on how crypto regulations evolve. But it’s plain to see that he and the SEC are tired of the crypto industry’s pushback.

— Nat Rubio-Licht