CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam Continues Calls for Non-Security Tokens Regulations

The chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, often known as the CFTC, is Rostin Behnam, and he has said that he would continue working toward the agency's goal of regulating non-security tokens.

Behnam cited "bankruptcies, failures, and runs" as part of the argument for Congress to grant the CFTC the ability to handle regulation for cryptocurrencies in statements that were made public on February 3 and were intended for an event hosted by the American Bar Association. The head of the Commodity Futures Trading Agency (CFTC) said that the commission was "ideally positioned" to resolve any regulatory deficiencies; nonetheless, the commission deferred to U.S. politicians to go forward with legislation.

"Regulation is important to protect consumers and to avoid failures which cannot reliably be confined within any limits across the local and global financial systems," said Behnam. "Regulation is necessary to protect customers and to prevent failures." "It makes no difference if one or more of these things happen in 2023 or 2033; we still need to take action. There is a new Congress, and I want to continue participating in legislative drafting and offering my expertise in that capacity whenever it is required.

According to the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), funding increases for the commission would also help the agency develop its enforcement staff, which has brought 69 crypto-related proceedings to far – a list that includes FTX, Ooki DAO, and other entities. Behnam said that the team was "working towards another strong year of precedent-setting cases" against dishonest or unlawful operations using digital assets.

Even if the political composition of the 118th Congress will be somewhat different from that of the one before it, it is still unknown whether or not the CFTC will be granted further jurisdiction under Behnam's leadership. The Lummis-Gillibrand Responsible Financial Innovation Act was initially proposed in June 2022 with the intention of addressing the roles of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with regard to cryptocurrency regulation. This bill may be one of the pieces of legislation that lawmakers consider revising.