“Each Bitcoin and Ether are commodities,” Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee chairman Rostin Behnam testified in a March 6 listening to earlier than the Home Committee on Agriculture.
Behnam was talking a couple of determination final month by SEC particular objective broker-dealer (SPBD) licensed Prometheum to provide ETH custody services.
“From my understanding, primarily studying the press and speaking to my employees, who’ve reached out to the SEC, this was an impartial determination by Prometheum, Behnam responded to a query about his views on the agency’s plans.
“It’s my understanding that this was by no means a call by the SEC, this was a person determination by the entity [Prometheum].”
Behnam testified that he would not consider the choice aligns with the SEC’s view of Ether, including how the SEC responds to Prometheum’s determination “clearly may be very vital.”
“The difficulty is that if we do have any motion by the SEC to primarily validate that [Prometheum’s] determination, i.e. constituting Ether as a safety, it’s going to then put our registrants, our exchanges who checklist Ether as a futures contract form of in non-compliance of SEC guidelines versus CFTC guidelines,” Behnam mentioned.
SEC-registered SPBDs can solely custody securities, nevertheless, SEC Chair Gary Gensler has not explicitly mentioned if ETH is a safety or commodity.
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He confused the necessity to preserve market integrity and added the “conclusion that Ether is a commodity” was a “years-old determination” that has seen the markets perform properly.
In earlier ready remarks, Behnam famous the CFTC would “periodically bump up in opposition to the boundaries” of current legal guidelines on account of market evolution and know-how.
He cited that elevated crypto market participation has “examined the boundaries of the present regulatory framework.”
“The shortage of laws addressing the regulatory hole over the digital commodity asset spot market has not hindered the general public’s enthusiasm for digital belongings,” Behnam mentioned. “I proceed to consider Congress should act.”
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