The new Chairman of the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is a major advocate for crypto assets and blockchain technology.
In his inaugural interview at the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit in New York, Heath Tarbert says he thinks regulated Ethereum futures and derivatives will begin launching soon.
He believes the move is the next natural step in the evolution of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
“We’ve been very clear on bitcoin: bitcoin is a commodity under the Commodity Exchange Act. We haven’t said anything about ether – until now. It is my view as Chairman of the CFTC that Ether is a commodity, and therefore it will be regulated under the CEA.
And my guess is that you will see in the near future Ether-related futures contracts and other derivatives potentially traded.”
Tarbert made a point of highlighting crypto and blockchain as a whole in his first major appearance as the head of the CFTC.
He says the US needs to lead the digital transformation of money, and he will do everything in his power to support the emerging technology.
“One of the things I’d like to say, because this is my first big public appearance as Chairman, is that I wanted to stress the importance of blockchain and digital assets to the United States and in particular as CFTC Chairman, I want the US to lead in this technology.
I don’t want another country to lead – I want the United States to lead because whoever leads in this technology is going to end up writing the rules of the game. So then we come to the question ‘well what is the role of the CFTC?’ And it’s very interesting because I think the CFTC’s role is to ensure that there’s integrity in the markets and we want these markets to develop in a way that has integrity.”
You can check out the full discussion below.