Lawmakers Discuss Crypto Regulatory Bill Following FTX Collapse – By Alexandra Kelley (Nextgov) / Dec 2, 2022
Members on the Senate Agriculture Committee consider applying classic market restrictions to the digital asset marketplace with financial regulators.
Congress has begun delving into what went wrong with cryptocurrency trading platform FTX and how to prevent future widespread financial disaster within the digital asset trading landscape. Rostin Behnam, the commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, offered his perspective before the Senate Agriculture Committee on Thursday.
Committee members and Behnam focused on consumer protections in the unregulated cryptocurrency market and where pending legislation and federal policy should be headed to prevent the financial fallout and alleged fraud that occurred when FTX––along with 130 connected companies––filed for bankruptcy amid a liquidity crisis.
“We are here today because many Americans invested in a novel product and will likely lose money because digital asset markets lack the basic protections that we have all come to expect and have made American financial markets the envy of the world,” Behnam testified. “In the absence of stringent and uniform standards, the digital asset market rapidly expanded with nominal barriers to entry for new products and new consumers. Massive speculative interest has taken the place of legitimate market forces, putting the American public at significant risk.”
