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Chairman of the SEC Said He would support Congress giving the CFTC more powers to regulate cryptocurrencies.
At an industry conference on Thursday, Gary Gensler said he looks forward to giving the Commodity Futures Trading Commission greater power over crypto markets “unless it takes power away from the SEC.”
However, Gensler said it was important to balance the regulatory oversight accorded to the CFTC so as not to “inadvertently undermine securities law” in the United States.
The Senate Committee on Agriculture, the regulatory body that oversees the CFTC, has proposed legislation that would assign oversight of the two largest cryptocurrencies on the market, Bitcoin and Ethereum, to agencies. The CFTC currently only has powers to regulate the cryptocurrency derivatives market such as futures and swaps.
The proposal follows a move by crypto lobbyists to force the CFTC to regulate the industry. Many industry experts believe that laws regulating commodities are better suited for digital assets than those regulating securities markets. Gensler headed the CFTC from 2009 until 2014.
Gensler’s comments mark an important milestone in U.S. crypto regulation. By delegating oversight over Bitcoin and Ethereum to the CFTC, the SEC will be able to focus on regulating the rest of the cryptocurrency market. The agency has endorsed the belief that all other cryptocurrencies are securities and should be regulated by existing securities laws.
Earlier this year, the agency nearly doubled its cryptocurrency enforcement department staff and continues to solicit registrations from US-based cryptocurrency exchanges.
