US senators introduce bill to appoint the CFTC as crypto regulator

What’s new? Members of the US Senate Debbie Stabenow and John Boozman introduced a bill that would give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) the authority to oversee the cryptocurrency market. If approved, digital assets will be regulated as commodities rather than securities, and cryptocurrency companies would be required to register with the CFTC, The Wall Street Journal reports.

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What is known about the document? According to the bill, any organizations operating as digital assets platforms must register with the regulator as a broker-dealer, as well as provide the CFTC with information about the structure of cryptocurrencies and possible conflicts of interest. Among other requirements, it is noted that exchanges must offer only assets that are resistant to market manipulation.

Debbie Stabenow is a member of the Democratic Party and also chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, whose jurisdiction, among other federal agencies, includes the CFTC. Stabenow expects her committee to hold hearings on the bill as early as September 2022. John Boozman is a member of the Republican Party and is also a high-ranking member of the Agriculture Committee. According to him, people in the crypto industry are “fairly united” that the CFTC should be appointed as the primary regulator.

Earlier, Cynthia Lummis and Kirsten Gillibrand, another bipartisan group of senators, introduced their bill on crypto regulation, which also proposed making the CFTC the primary agency responsible for overseeing the sector. In this, Lummis previously proposed dividing cryptocurrencies into categories, depending on whether the asset is recognized as a commodity or a security, it would be supervised by the CFTC or the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The CFTC itself, meanwhile, created the Office of Technology Innovation (OTI). Starting at the end of July, Commission employees can undertake an internship at OTI to gain experience in the field of cryptocurrencies.

Earlier, SEC Chair Gary Gensler instructed his staff to interact directly with cryptocurrency exchanges so that they could be registered and regulated. He said that the regulator should work with crypto exchanges in the same way as with securities exchanges.