UPDATED 23:44 EST / JUNE 07 2022

BLOCKCHAIN

A new cryptocurrency bill would treat digital assets as commodities under CFTC oversight

Two senators today introduced bipartisan legislation aimed at reining in the “Wild West” of cryptocurrency trading, putting the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as the key regulator.

The bill’s sponsors are Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis, who sit on the Senate Agriculture Committee and Banking Committee, respectively. The “Responsible Financial Innovation Act,” they say, will create a regulatory framework for digital assets, something that has been needed for a long time in a market that has created new billionaires but also been plagued by scams. It’s thought 16% of adult Americans now have investments in cryptocurrencies, even though the market is far from stable.

The bill would treat cryptocurrencies as commodities like oil or coffee, under the regulation of the CFTC, which many of those in the cryptocurrency sector see as much more favorable than having the Securities and Exchange Commission as the regulator.

“The Responsible Financial Innovation Act, a bipartisan framework that I crafted in conjunction with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, creates regulatory clarity for agencies charged with supervising digital asset markets, provides a strong, tailored regulatory framework for stablecoins, and integrates digital assets into our existing tax and banking laws,” Lummis said in a press release.

The SEC, which enforces the U.S.’s securities laws and protects investors from wrongdoing – as opposed to the much smaller body of the CFTC’s regulation of commodities – will only get involved with oversight if told to do by the courts. For some time now, regulation of digital assets has been described as a “turf war.”

The bill has been met positively by cryptocurrency investors who say the SEC shouldn’t have oversight of decentralized digital tokens because it doesn’t make any sense, although it’s the SEC that has been more outspoken as to reining in the market. Last year, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler called the market the “Wild West” before securities laws were brought in. He says digital assets are not commodities, but similar to stock, and should be treated as such.

Critics of the bill say leaving oversight to the CFTC is tantamount to leaving the market unregulated, although Gillibrand doesn’t think so, saying the bill will “provide clarity to both industry and regulators, while also maintaining the flexibility to account for the ongoing evolution of the digital assets market.”

Photo: Art Rachen/Unsplash

A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU