CFTC Chairman Lobbies For More Stake in Crypto Market

Rostin Behnam, the current Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has put his desires out there to the senate of his willingness to control more of the cryptocurrency market. 

During a hearing of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Behnam attested that he had already incited his agency to prepare to play a major role as the core regulator in the crypto market. According to him, receiving this top-tier authority will help his agency better understand the dynamics of the crypto market.

“The volatility in the market, and its impact on retail customers – which may only worsen under current macroeconomic conditions – emphasizes the immediate need for regulatory clarity and market protections,” He said. “We don’t have that market regulatory structure that provides that transparency and lens into how the markets are operating,” Behnam continued.

Christopher Giancarlo, former Chairman of CFTC before Behnam also shared in the current Chairman’s sentiment.

During an interview, he openly declared that the CFTC should oversee the activities of the crypto market rather than the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or even the U.S. Department of Treasury. 

Although, it was also established by Giancarlo that giving the CFTC control over the crypto market will make it easier for institutions to participate in retail markets. 

He said this is “because those markets would have a well-established federal regulator overseeing those markets, and looking after things like consumer protection, adequate funding, and protections against fraud and manipulation of those markets.”

Senate Considers CFTC as the U.S. Crypto Key Regulator

Before now, the Senate was already at the helm of affairs, preparing a bill that would create a significant change in the regulation of cryptocurrency and put the CFTC in charge. The bill was tagged Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act and once approved would mandate all crypto exchanges to report directly to the CFTC. 

When asked by a member of the Senate, Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) how much extra his agency would need to pay closer attention to the digital assets industry, Behnam responded that his agency had already drawn a three-year-long budget of $112 million. Notably, this is a significant increase from the Commission’s current $320 million annual budget. Durbin on his part didn’t think Behnam was being realistic.

Correspondingly, Gary Gensler the Chairman of the regulator currently in charge of digital assets SEC did not agree to Behnam’s request for more authority.

Meanwhile, CFTC mulled the idea of hiring crypto venture fund Pantera Capital’s legal counsel Joe Cisewski as chief of staff and senior counsel. His well of experience in working with investment giants and key regulators in the industry like the SEC was one of the reasons he was chosen.