Skip to content
Home / News |

CFTC Chair Seeks Regulatory Clarity for Crypto

Key points:

  • Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Discusses Crypto Regulation
  • Crypto Regulation Depends On 70-Year Old Case Law
  • “Bitcoin Might Double In Price If There’s A CFTC-Regulated Market”

CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam has given his views on the potential for cryptocurrency regulation and what it could mean for the price of Bitcoin.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Discusses Crypto Regulation

Rostin Behnam is Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and was interviewed on Wednesday during a fireside chat at NYU School of Law. A bipartisan bill was introduced by the Senate Agriculture Committee, which oversees the CFTC, that looks to place the CFTC as the primary regulator for the crypto industry, to oversee crypto spot markets meaning crypto trading firms would need to register with the CFTC.
Behnam said,

“For us, the CFTC, the difficulty is, you know, we are a derivatives regulator. We don’t oversee cash markets. So the authority that I’ve been asking Congress for is cash authority – so that we can go into the Bitcoin cash market, the Ether cash market, and the other digital tokens.”

WELCOME BONUS - Free Share Bundle When You Invest £50! Open a UK Investment Account: Shares, ISAs, Managed Portfolio Invest in 15,000+ shares and ETFs. Open an account now, invest at least £50, and you’ll get a free share bundle worth between £40 and £200. T&Cs apply. IG
5.0
View Offers
Empfohlener Broker Multi Asset Platform
Social-Trading-Pionier mit Aktien, ETFs, Krypto und CFDs, Copy Trading inklusive. eToro
5.0
Weitere Informationen 50% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.

Also Read: AI and Automated Trading in the Cryptocurrency Market

Crypto Regulation Depends On 70-Year Old Case Law

One of the issues with regulation is whether assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) and more widely in the cryptocurrency space are securities or commodities. Behnam has stated,

“We have to rely on 70-year-old case law to determine what’s a security or a commodity. We have one case in New York that says Bitcoin is a commodity. There are other cases out there – we are just trying to figure it out.”

“Bitcoin Might Double In Price If There’s A CFTC-Regulated Market”

Behnam indicated that regulation that was driven by the CFTC could have substantial benefits for the cryptocurrency space, with a potential advancement for the Bitcoin price.
He stated,

“Growth might occur if we have a well-regulated space,” adding, “Bitcoin might double in price if there’s a CFTC-regulated market.”

Steve Miley
Author

Steve spent 2009-2012 as a Director of the FX Technical Analysis Research Strategy team at Credit Suisse and was previously at Merrill Lynch for 15 years from 1994-2009