- CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam says a majority of cryptocurrencies, 70-80%, are non-securities.
- Behnam appeared earlier than the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Diet and Forestry’s Listening to on the Oversight of Digital Commodities on Wednesday.
Rostin Behnam, the chairman of the Commodities Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC), has reiterated his perception that the CFTC is best positioned because the company to supervise crypto.
The CFTC chair made the feedback in a sworn statement throughout the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Diet and Forestry’s Listening to on the Oversight of Digital Commodities on Wednesday.
Behnam advised lawmakers of the current court docket rulings in Illinois that declared Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are commodities.
“Simply final week, a District Courtroom within the Northern District of Illinois entered abstract judgment in favor of the CFTC in a case involving fraud by an unregistered entity that promised regular returns in digital asset commodities similar to Bitcoin and Ether. In its choice, the court docket re-affirmed that each Bitcoin and Ether are commodities beneath the Commodity Trade Act,” he mentioned in a sworn statement.
In the identical method, the CFTC chair famous that a lot of the cryptocurrencies available in the market usually are not securities, with a proportion relevant to this being round 70-80%.
Behnam additionally talked of the Fee’s regulatory efforts, significantly in bringing enforcement actions towards people and entities that breach the commodities legal guidelines, together with within the digital commodities market.
The CFTC has over the previous few years filed greater than 135 digital commodity-related circumstances, with the lawsuits leading to billions of {dollars} in penalties and restitution. Whereas the CFTC continues to work with regulation enforcement, there’s continued escalation of digital asset fraud and different violations, largely right down to “accelerated and sustained adoption of digital belongings by U.S. traders.”
