CFTC chairman claims the agency is ‘ready’ for the possibility of regulating crypto

As the cryptocurrency sector continues to grow thanks to the increasing interest of the general public, regulatory agencies are trying to include the new asset class in their operations.

One of these agencies is the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), whose chairman Rostin Benham commented on the possibility of CFTC taking on crypto regulations in the future, stating it was fully prepared for it, South Dakota Public Broadcasting (SDPB) Radio reported on August 10.

Behnam made these remarks at a joint meeting of the South Dakota Corn Utilization Council and the South Dakota Corn Growers Association on August 9, organized at the Raven Precision Agricultural Center at South Dakota State University.

Placing crypto regulation in CFTC’s hands?

The chairman’s comments referred to the U.S. Senate committee’s plans to propose a bill that would place digital assets like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) under the jurisdiction of the commodities regulator with an aim to increase transaction transparency and protect market participants.

In Benham’s words, this is “a necessary thing, but it’s also a change for the agency.” Addressing the fears that CFTC may not be the right agency to regulate crypto, he explained that:

“We need to focus on what we do and what expertise we have, and that’s commodity markets, and let’s just use the tools we have and make some changes. (…) Life’s changing, technology evolves, and we’re ready for it. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.”

Earlier, Benham noted the increasing interest of Americans in digital assets, voicing his prediction that they might soon become integral to mainstream financial portfolios in the country.

Commissioners’ cautious stance on crypto

However, not everyone in his agency is as optimistic about crypto as he is, with commissioner Caroline Pham urging investors to view crypto tokens as lottery tickets where they can expect profits or losses.

On top of that, another CFTC commissioner, Christy Goldsmith Romero, raised the alarm over the crypto market’s similarities with the banking sector in the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, as Finbold reported in mid-June.