CFTC: More Authority Needed to Regulate Crypto

Regulation by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) may be the answer for dealing with the risk associated with cryptocurrency as more traditional financial institutions (FIs) show an interest in crypto, CFTC Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero reportedly told a conference.

“Congress can address financial stability risks by providing additional authority to the CFTC,” Goldsmith Romero said Wednesday (Oct. 26) at the International Swaps and Derivatives Association conference in New York, CoinDesk reported Wednesday (Oct. 26).

She added that the United States shouldn’t rush regulation and that any rules should treat the crypto industry the same as the traditional financial industry, according to the report.

Noting that traditional financial organizations are showing greater interest in crypto, Goldsmith Romero said interconnections between the two industries will increase risk, the report stated.

“[T]his spring, unregulated crypto markets revealed their vulnerabilities to similar financial stability risks as traditional finance, with parallel themes from the 2008 financial crisis,” Goldsmith Romero said, per the report.

PYMNTS has reached out to the CFTC for comment.

Goldsmith Romero previously worked for around 10 years as a special inspector general for the Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief program.

In March, when a nominee for her current position, Goldsmith Romero said at a confirmation hearing that there needs to be more powers to regulate crypto and that the agency’s history overlooking crypto derivatives means it could do more to oversee digital assets.

As PYMNTS reported Sept. 9, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler supported giving more cryptocurrency oversight to the CFTC in order to best protect investors.

Read more: SEC Chair Gensler Backs Granting CFTC More Crypto Oversight

“To the extent the [CFTC] needs greater authorities with which to oversee and regulate crypto non-security tokens and related intermediaries, I look forward to working with Congress to achieve that goal consistent with maintaining the regulation of crypto security tokens and related intermediaries at the SEC,” Gensler said during a speech delivered at an event organized by the Practicing Law Institute.

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