Commodity Futures Commission Roils Markets With Crypto White Paper
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s LabCFTC has released a white paper on virtual currencies, including how the agency plans to oversee cryptocurrencies.
Titled A CFTC Primer on Virtual Currencies, the paper is intended to be an educational tool on FinTech innovations, according to its preface. “These are not intended to describe the official policy or position of the CFTC, or to limit the CFTC’s current or future positions or actions,” it said.
However, reactions to the paper indicated people were taking it as a statement of future intentions on regulation, something that usually roils the cryptocurrency markets. This time was no exception, and although most cryptocurrencies were already in retreat, some news reports were blaming the white paper for the plunge today in prices.
LabCFTC is designed to make the CFTC more accessible to FinTech innovators and serve as a platform to inform the Commission’s understanding of emerging technologies.
“LabCFTC believes that promoting education, understanding, and regulatory clarity around emerging technologies can help facilitate market-enhancing innovation and guard against risks,” said Daniel Gorfine, the Director of LabCFTC. “As people worldwide try to understand and wrap their heads around the virtual currency ecosystem, we thought it timely and important for our first primer to help explain the space, identify how developments involve the CFTC, and highlight risks that investors or users of virtual currencies should carefully consider.”
