The Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) says he wants America to lead the way when it comes to adopting crypto, in addition to their underlying blockchain technology.
In a recent interview with Bloomberg’s Kevin Cirilli, Heath Tarbert made his remarks when asked to give an update on the increasing role of cryptocurrency.
“I really think, not only in the digital assets themselves, but in the underlying blockchain technology –Kevin, I want the United States of America to lead in this. I want to encourage innovation, and it’s interesting because commodities are what we regulate, particularly derivatives on commodities. Right now, the two biggest types of digital assets, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), actually fall within our jurisdiction.”
He adds,
“We are doing a lot in the digital assets space… We’re seeing Bitcoin futures, both cash-settled as well as physically delivered. My guess is we’re going to see Ether futures as well, and as things start to migrate in the commodities space, we’ll see even more.”
Policymakers are still tasked with creating a more robust regulatory framework around new digital assets in order to support more innovation while also enforcing efforts to stop fraudsters and scammers from committing illicit financial activities and ripping off consumers.
Last year, Tarbert said that “by and large,” the two major problems with most cryptos relate to anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing.
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