CFTC Financial News

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Rostin Behnam, Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal and a slew of former regulators are set to testify Tuesday morning in front of a US congressional committee.

If there were ever such a thing as an all-star lineup of regulators, the United States House of Representatives Agricultural Committee’s June 6 hearing on digital asset regulation would probably hold the record. The current chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Rostin Behnam was joined by a former chair and a former acting chair of that agency, as well as a former commissioner. Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal also appeared.

Binance executive was the main operator for five bank accounts belonging to the giant cryptocurrency exchange's purportedly independent U.S. affiliate, including an account that held American customers' funds, bank records show. U.S. lender Silvergate Bank authorized the executive, Guangying Chen, a close associate of Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, to operate the accounts in 2019 and 2020, according to records from those years. This allowed Chen and her deputies to move funds held in the bank accounts. Employees at the affiliate, Binance.US, had to ask Chen's team to process payments, even to cover the firm's payroll, company messages show. The new findings offer further detail into how Binance exercised tight control over Binance.US, despite both firms maintaining that they have always operated independently. The previously unreported bank records and messages show that Binance's management over the U.S. business's finances extended across its bank accounts at Silvergate and detail how this secret access was granted. Binance.US has denied that Binance ever operated its bank accounts. Its head of legal, Krishna Juvvadi, told in April that employees of Binance.US's operator, BAM Trading, had «exclusive control» since its founding in 2019.

Coinbase, Robinhood, and representatives from the United States commodities regulator are set to testify before Congress on June 6 to discuss a newly proposed crypto bill. 

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Cboe Digital, a major options exchange in the United States, has had its application to offer margined futures contracts for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) approved by the United States commodities regulator.

New draft legislation is drumming up support among cryptocurrency advocates who cheered its focus on defining what constitutes a security versus a commodity.

Lawmakers with the United States House Financial Services Committee and House Agriculture Committee have released a draft discussion offering certain crypto assets a pathway to being labeled digital commodities.

Republican lawmakers teamed up in the US House Financial Services Committee and the House Agriculture Committee on a discussion draft to regulate digital assets.

Christy Goldsmith Romero, a commissioner with the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has commented on a proposal amending the government body’s Risk Management Program with respect to digital assets.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is taking a closer look at its rules governing risk management, with an eye towards digital assets.

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.__________

The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has issued a staff advisory letter to registered derivatives clearing organizations (DCOs) and DCO applicants, reminding them of the risks associated with expanding the scope of their activities. The letter from the CFTC Division of Clearing and Risk (DCR) specifically addressed digital assets.

A US regulator warned firms on Tuesday of the risks that come with the clearing of digital assets.  

cryptocurrency fraud because there is so much, though her agency is working on several big cases. Christy Goldsmith Romero, one of five commissioners at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), said cryptocurrency cases account for about 20% of the agency's portfolio, including recent civil cases against the exchanges Binance and FTX. «There's just a lot of fraud in the space,» Goldsmith Romero said at a white collar crime conference at the New York City Bar Association. «There's just no way we can police all the fraud, but we've got to do something.» CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam has sought greater authority from lawmakers for the agency to oversee spot crypto markets.

A US regulator charges five people on Wednesday for allegedly “fraudulently soliciting” money from more than 170 people for a company called Icomtech to trade bitcoin and other assets for them. 

Ethereum’s native Ether (ETH) token may be both a commodity and a security, the former commissioner of the United States Commodities Futures Trading Commission has claimed.

Crypto exchange Binance denies allegations of mismanagement of customers’ funds. Binance’s denial came in response to a Reuters report that alleged that the crypto exchange comingled customer’s funds with company revenue.

Reuters says it stands by its reporting following criticism it received from a Binance executive on its story that said the world’s largest crypto exchange commingled customer funds. 

Binance is pushing back against a Reuters report that said the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange commingled customer funds with company revenue in 2020 and 2021. 

Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and other aspects of the decentralized finance (DeFi) world can be regulated in the US, even though it is “just code,” according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chair Rostin Behnam.