Regulation
“Congress must act” on cryptocurrency regulation, CFTC Chairman Behnam tells lawmakers
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Rostin Behnam reiterated his long-standing call for Congress to pass legislation addressing regulators’ jurisdictions in the cryptocurrency industry during an annual appearance before the House Agriculture Committee .
“We need to close the gap in cryptocurrency regulation,” Behnam said Wednesday, pointing to Bitcoin (BTC) recent price action. He added that expecting “another period of irrational exuberance” would be an understatement. “This idea of the demise of cryptocurrencies, I think, is just a false narrative.”
“We need to act, Congress needs to act to close this gap, particularly around bitcoin which is clearly a commodity,” he said. “Here are two of the largest tokens, representing around 60-70% of the entire market capitalization [of crypto],” he added, referring to BTC and ether (ETH)
Behnam was answering questions from lawmakers about the Financial and Technological Innovation for the 21st Century Act (FIT Act), a bill that passed through the House Agriculture and Financial Services Committees last year but never reached a floor vote. Wednesday’s hearing will focus on the CFTC more broadly, including its budget requests for the next fiscal year. Earlier in the hearing, Behnam said the agency needed more certainty about its budget.
If Congress passes the FIT Act, Behnam said he is “confident” that the CFTC can build a regulatory framework within 12 months.
Later in the hearing, another lawmaker – Rep. John Duarte (R-California) – asked Behnam to explain how bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies were commodities, pointing to physical commodities as a possible example.
Behnam said the classification of bitcoin as a commodity “is mostly used in a counter-negative sense.”
“If it’s not a security, then it’s a commodity,” he said, adding, “in which case, analysis needs to take place to establish that it’s not a security, which is often how we test whether it’s a investment contract, and answer affirmatively to this question, which is not a security, which becomes a commodity.”