US CFTC Chair – Agency Has Defied Calls to Repress Advancement of Crypto Sector

Christopher Giancarlo, Chairman of the US CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) has stressed that the agency’s primary objective is to track but not hamper the advancement of the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry.

The comments were made while giving a speech dedicated to the EU-US regulatory partnership for derivatives markets at the Eurofi Financial Forum. On April 4, the event took place in Bucharest, Romania.

The chairman offered the agency’s assistance worldwide to validate the usefulness of the G20’s derivatives overhaul program and to make sure they improve, instead of suppress, derivatives markets. He cited that the CFTC is itself dedicated to creating its own guidelines and formalities simple, less complex and cost efficient for market participants.

In these circumstances, he segregated the CFTC’s optimistic handling of unique derivatives products related to digital assets and other emerging technologies, suggesting that:

“We have resisted calls to use our legal powers to suppress the development of crypto-assets. […] Instead, we have favored close monitoring of market developments while not hindering the introduction of new products like bitcoin futures, which have proven invaluable in letting market forces determine the appropriate value of the bitcoin.”

Giancarlo also quoted a research paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco published on May 2018. The research document had disputed that the introduction of Bitcoin (BTC) futures trading on two major exchanges, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange, had adequately strengthened the crypto derivatives market to counterbalance single-sided unproven demand and permit for a better unbiased change to overblown estimates.

Giancarlo has earlier suggested that the CFTC’s authorization of Bitcoin futures was homogenous with the agency’s plan to adopt market-oriented solutions for advancement.

He also suggested that the agency’s establishment of its own fintech innovation center, LabCFTC, was basic for staying in line with the reforming technological changes and market progression harbingered by blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

So far, two of LabCFTC’s fintech educational handbooks have been dedicated to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology: regarding smart contracts in November last year and crypto currencies in October 2017.

Back in December 2018, the lab called for comments from industry and public on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain as portion of its assessment for possible endorsement of Ethereum futures contracts.