CFTC Chair Calls for International Coordination Between Regulators for Crypto Industry

The head of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) says financial regulators around the world should coordinate to effectively oversee the crypto industry.

In a new interview with CNBC, CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam calls for international coordination among financial regulators to protect customers and ensure market stability in the crypto space.

“It’s a huge issue. Gary [Gensler, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman], and I participate in a lot of multilateral organizations with other jurisdictions and crypto and crypto regulation has been a high priority for several years right now. You’re right, the sort of borderless nature of the technology makes it even harder than traditional financial markets, whether it’s on the securities side or the derivatives side.

Certainly swaps markets are very international in nature, but there has to be coordination among the international regulators. Ultimately, though, having a regulatory structure within the US, which I think has to be the priority, would then prevent by law, both on the civil side and the criminal side, of having these issuers, these exchanges offering services to US customers.”

Behnam and other US regulators are facing questions over following the collapse of the FTX exchange, and the CFTC Chair says that the event could help push officials into finally defining the difference between a security and a commodity, a longstanding issue on crypto regulation.

“The issue that really resonated, and we spoke about this the last time I was on the show, was about security versus commodity. I think what’s going on in the past week should dismiss that as an issue that’s going to create inertia to get something done. We can figure that out.”

Behnam also briefly touches upon possible legal issues facing Sam Bankman-Fried in the wake of FTX’s disintegration.

“A lot of what’s been reported right now suggests that there’s going to be more than just some market manipulation and violations of the law.”