Regulators should not determine which asset classes or securities are legitimate. This was the view expressed by former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Christopher Giancarlo.
He took part in the main discussion at the Digital Asset Compliance and Market Integrity Summit in New York together with former head of OCC Brian Brooks. Both speakers noted that the existing regulatory approach to the industry creates problems.
CME and Cboe approached the agency about the possibility of launching Bitcoin futures.
“It was remarkable the pressure that was brought to bear on the Commission to suspend or halt the certification of Bitcoin futures. And it wasn’t only regulators, though a large cohort from the U.S. and abroad called us and said: “Do not allow this, because you are legitimising Bitcoin””,
According to him, at that time many banks and traditional financial institutions were against approving crypto derivatives.
“Not to me, as an unelected bureaucrat, but to the market to determine the legitimacy of the activity. And the only way the market could do this would be to let it into the market”,
Brooks supported his view, noting that regulators should not pick winners and losers in the Web 3.0 space.
“We’re not asking the SEC to pass judgment on which cars are better — Tesla or Buick. We let the market decide,”
Earlier, expressed the view that the SEC should not regulate Bitcoin, as this is the CFTC’s prerogative.
In September, left the board of the crypto-lending platform BlockFi and continued to work as an adviser.
Brooks in November took up the post of chief executive officer at Bitfury Group, a blockchain company. Prior to that, he sat on the board of Spring Labs as an independent director and briefly headed Binance US.