Crypto Regulations: CFTC Commissioner’s Office on Retail Advocate Proposal

Crypto Regulations

Crypto regulations are treated as one of the crucial issues around the crypto space amongst regulators and authorities across many countries in the world. In the United States, two of the most prominent regulators—Commodity and Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission—are responsible for crypto regulations intended to protect consumer and retail investors. 

Recently, CFTC Commissioner Carloine Pham was seen to suggest taking somewhat similar steps towards retail investors protection. In her keynote address at CordaCon 2022, Pham mentioned a proposal of an office focused on retail crypto investors. This was highlighted as the Office of the Retail Advocate

Pham delivered the speech on 27th September, 2022 at the event organized by blockchain project Corda in London. She noted the proposal as the step towards stretching out the consumer protection mandate of CFTC. 

The CFTC Commissioner cited several reasons behind the demands of balanced innovation to cater retail investors protection and crypto regulations. These reasons included crypto market crash, failure in risk management and retail investors ending up losing a significant amount of their investments. 

Following SEC for the Office Proposal

In her way to explain the potential format of the proposed office, she stated it to resemble the SEC’s Office of the Investor Advocate. The SEC’s method is a tried and true way to form an office such as that. 

According to Pham, the SECs office has primarily four functions. These include opinions of investors during policymaking and providing required assistance to resolve their issues with regulatory institutions like the SEC or SRO. The office also provides crucial support to the advisory committee and conducts research and economic analysis to study investors’ behavior. 

As mentioned earlier, both the US SEC and CFTC are among prominent financial regulators in the United States. Both are more or less to be looked upon when it comes to potential crypto regulations. However, the subject of crypto regulations is treated as a sensitive issue and SEC’s involvement already creates skepticism, especially citing the agency’s take towards the crypto industry—lawsuit against Ripple Labs is the most popular example. 

The only option left in such a situation is CFTC and many people believe the regulator to take reins of crypto regulations. However, its image also needs to be clarified as it is under suspicion after the Ooki DAO case with allegations of enforcing regulations.  

Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/09/29/crypto-regulations-cftc-commissioners-office-on-retail-advocate-proposal/