FTX Chief Reminds Congress That 95% of Crypto Volume Is Offshore

(Bloomberg) — Sam Bankman-Fried, the chief executive officer and co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, said 95% of crypto trading volume occurs offshore and urged for greater regulatory clarity to attract businesses to the U.S.

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“Despite the majority of the intellectual property for the digital asset industry originating from the United States, 95% of volume occurs offshore,” Bankman-Fried told members of the Senate Agriculture Committee during a hearing Wednesday on crypto assets. “The majority of assets are not accessible at all from the United States. It would be great to be able to move that liquidity, that business back on shore.”

Bankman-Fried cited the number as he made his requests for clarity of federal oversight over the digital assets industry. He supported expanding the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which currently regulates the crypto derivatives market, to include spot digital commodity transactions. He also suggested the U.S. create a process to allow digital tokens to be registered in the country, and asked for greater clarity over licensing requirements.

The messages are in line with the request of CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam, who urged lawmakers during the hearing to give his agency more authority and a bigger budget to oversee trading in the fast-growing cryptocurrency market.

The international FTX.com exchange has seen around $15 billion of assets traded daily on the platform this year, which now represents approximately 10% of global volume for crypto trading, according to Bankman-Fried’s testimony.