Jesse Hamilton
Jesse Hamilton is CoinDesk's deputy managing editor for global policy and regulation. He doesn't hold any crypto.
AUSTIN, Texas — Rostin Behnam, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), is “very encouraged” that Congress is making moves to grant his agency a much wider regulatory authority over the digital asset markets.
“It’s just a positive momentum, I think, for the technology, for the industry, for the economy,” Behnam said at CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022 in Austin, Texas, on Thursday. “There are unique coalitions getting together on this issue, which is very rare in Washington.”
The CFTC – typically seen as a friendlier option than the Securities and Exchange Commission to lead oversight of the industry – has been tackling a few policy questions such as FTX’s bid to directly clear customer’s derivatives, but it’s otherwise waiting for Congress to define its eventual role. That process took a major early step this week with the introduction of sweeping legislation from U.S. Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)
A key aspect of that effort, Behnam said, is the power it gives the CFTC to assess fees from the industry, which would fund growth and recruiting at the agency.
“It allows us to essentially do our job,” he said. “We have to evolve with markets. We have to evolve with technology.”
The recent meltdown of TerraUSD (UST) has emphasized the need for regulation, Behnam said, noting the “terrific fall in price” of the algorithmic stablecoin.
“It validates what has been said, what I’ve said, for the past couple of years,” he said. “We need to put guardrails around the space.”
