March 28, 2024

CFTC begins analysis of its potential role in relation to cryptocurrencies

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CFTC begins analysis of its potential role in relation to cryptocurrencies

Commodity Trading CommissionUS futures (CFTC) After the unveiling of the bipartisan bill, she expressed confidence that she would take a key role in regulating the crypto industry.

CFTC Commissioner Summer MersingerMersinger, speaking at the Reuters Commodities Trading USA conference in Texas, said that their supervisory authority will become the main regulator of the crypto industry.

“You see the industry coming together aroundCFTC, which becomes the primary regulator,” Mersinger said, citing widespread support for bipartisan legislation to regulate the crypto industry.

Indeed, many leaderscryptocurrency companies supported the bill put forward on June 7 by US Senators Cynthia Lummis and Kirsten Gillibrand. The bill proposes to give the CFTC the authority of the industry's primary regulator. 

Mersinger noted that the CFTC has begun reviewingits potential role in relation to cryptocurrencies. Staff are looking at regulation of cryptocurrency spot trading markets as a starting point, she said.

“We're still a strong regulator, but the SEC has a lot of flexibility,” she admits.

It is worth noting that if the SEC became an industryregulator, there would be no talk of any flexible approach. Crypto companies would have to meet all the requirements that banks and stockbrokers meet in order to receive registration and approval from the SEC. The CFTC, in turn, supports the bill, said Commission Chairman Rostin Behnam.

“One of the most difficult things weWhat we have to do – and I think we will do a very good job of this – is to learn to determine in which case a cryptocurrency is a commodity and in which case it is a security,” Behnam noted.

This week Senator Lummis met withSEC Chairman Gary Gensler for feedback on the bill. Gensler has not yet commented on the proposed draft law to regulate cryptocurrencies.

Let us remind you that both agencies are consideringbitcoin and ether as commodities, but other digital asset classes are not yet defined, with the exception of XRP. The SEC insists that this is a digital paper that requires appropriate regulation.

Although the bill has not yet been passed, CongressIn the United States, a discussion has already begun about which agency should regulate the crypto industry. In April, it was reported that the two agencies might join forces to regulate cryptocurrencies, but that proposal appears to have fallen by the wayside.