"The CFTC is well situated to play an increasingly central role in overseeing the case digital commodity market," said CFTC Chairman Behnam in prepared remarks to the Senate Agriculture Committee today. Chairman Behnam emphasized that the CFTC has enforcement authority of digital asset spot markets and has brought nearly 50 enforcement actions in the space. Chairman Behnam further remarked that "it is important that we find ways to sensibly bring this emerging market within the regulatory fold." The agency is "past the stage where digital assets and decentralized financial technologies are a research project, sandboxing what may come in the future." Instead, digital assets issues "are at the front and center of our thinking at the Commission."
These remarks show the strong interest that Chairman Behnam and the CFTC have in exerting a broader role in the regulation of the digital assets industry through its traditional and flexible principles-based approach. Chairman Behnam's statement strongly suggests the digital assets industry will continue to receive additional attention from regulators and legislators this year and will provide ample opportunity for the digital assets industry to influence policy development.
The CFTC is well situated to play an increasingly central role in overseeing the cash digital asset commodity market. Fundamentally, the CFTC is a market regulator that ensures market integrity and vibrancy aimed at supporting financial stability, while ensuring individual customer protections through principles-based oversight of exchanges, clearinghouses, data repositories, and market participants. This flexible approach has allowed the CFTC, with authority from Congress, to evolve along with the derivatives markets from their historical roots in overseeing agricultural markets to now overseeing markets in everything from energy and precious metals to financial indices and swaps. And we now stand ready to do the same within the digital asset commodity market.
https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/SpeechesTestimony/opabehnam20
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