CFTC WILL BE OVERSEEING CRYPTO INDUSTRY IN USA

CFTC WILL BE OVERSEEING CRYPTO INDUSTRY IN USA

CFTC Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero says the agency needs a new way of categorizing investors to prepare for the new oversight of digital assets, now that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission looks set to take over oversight of cryptocurrency trading.

In the words of Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero.

“We have more retail investors coming into our markets and that traditionally was largely institutional and includes regular people up to someone with $10 million,” she said.

Very interesting is the idea that is going around that it will be the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that will regulate and oversee the crypto industry, at the expense of the SEC, which is seen as ” not very lenient” about crypto, unlike the CFTC Chairman who is seen in crypto circles as a relatively friendly face in government, and Rustin Behnam often says things that seem to reinforce this view, such as describing the explosive growth of the industry as “exciting” and “fascinating.”

But the words that follow are a real assist to the DIGITAL INDUSTRY:

“I think there are some people who want this technology to disappear, to go offshore, but I think there are a number of reasons why, from the U.S. perspective, it’s important to engage with the industry. We have to ask ourselves some hard questions about whether this is the future of finance and our economy, and it could be,” Behnam said.

This is why a new definition of retail investor needs to be proposed, considering that the current way the CFTC thinks about this type of investor is “so broad,” so much so that it includes regular people up to someone with $10 million.

Adding a new category could help the agency treat regular cryptocurrency users differently than large institutions, and this would generally mean more limits and protections for small investors.

The CFTC thus appears to be the regulatory authority of choice for cryptocurrency trading, according to the various proposed bills currently moving through Congress that would give it authority over the spot market, that is, the markets where tokens are traded among investors. A consensus has developed among lawmakers in both parties to give the U.S. commodities agency new power to oversee spot markets in digital assets that are not securities, including bitcoin.

But one should not believe that the CFTC will regulate the industry with a lighter touch than the SEC.

“We will have been very forceful in enforcement in the digital asset industry,” CFTC Commissioner Caroline Pham told attendees at Korea Blockchain Week in August.

“Anyone who thinks the CFTC will not be tough may not have noticed when we have fined all the banks billions of dollars for fraud and manipulation after the financial crisis.”