Heath Tarbert, the new Chairman and Chief Executive of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, says his agency is focused on creating a market for digital assets.
Tarbert, who spoke about crypto with Cheddar Live, says Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) are the two digital assets that fall under its jurisdiction.
“By allowing them to come into the world of the CFTC, we’re allowing the futures markets to develop based on these products, and in that way, when people are interested in purchasing a particular digital asset (of the two, Bitcoin or Ether), they can rely on the futures markets, which have been around for over 100 years, which have price discovery, hedging, and the risk management, and so in many ways it’s helping to legitimize, in my view, and add liquidity to these markets.”
As for XRP, Tarbert was asked a direct question about whether the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap – and if any other digital assets – fall under his agency’s purview.
“It’s unclear. Stay tuned, I would say. Part of the issue is our jurisdiction we share with the SEC. If it’s a security, it falls under their jurisdiction. If it’s a commodity, it falls under ours.
So we’ve been working closely with the SEC over the last year or so to really think about which falls in what box, because if I hear anything from market participants, it’s that we really need clarity. That without clarity it’s really difficult to figure out how these will eventually be regulated and how to trade them.”
CFTC @ChairmanHeath on Phase 1 of the U.S.-China trade deal to be signed later this week: “It’s going to be an immense success.” #CheddarLive pic.twitter.com/fXdYD0CObs
— Cheddar (@cheddar) January 13, 2020
Tarbert revealed his pro-crypto stance back in October, and says he thinks regulated Ethereum futures are on the horizon.
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