CFTC needs authority to establish preventive fraud rules for the cryptocurrency market. This follows from тезисов речи by Rostin Behnam for a hearing before the United States Congress.
In his words, the digital-asset industry “suffers from fraud and manipulation.” The Commission has been actively enforcing order in this market, recovering more than $4 billion in fines and restitution in 85 cases.
“But our authority in the spot market for commodity tokens is inherently limited to acting only after fraud has occurred,” Behnam said.
He says the agency should have the ability to:
- set standards to prevent conflicts of interest;
- introduce rules to maintain fair, open and transparent markets;
- actively oversee trading.
Behnam argued that going forward the SEC should continue to regulate the portion of the market that falls under securities laws.
Behnam noted that his agency is the only regulator in the United States entirely funded by the budget. Other regulatory bodies have different funding mechanisms.
“Regulating the market for digital goods will bring new duties to the CFTC that cannot be carried out simply by including this market in our existing oversight regime with the resources we currently have,” Behnam said.
officially took the helm at the Commission in December 2021, having previously served as acting chair since January.
In July 2022 Behnam announced the creation of a new division within the agency to oversee digital assets.
In March 2023 the CFTC filed a civil suit against the largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao. In June the SEC brought claims against the company .
As Gary Gensler, the head of the SEC, has repeatedly advocated expansion of the CFTC’s powers in the digital-asset market.