Rostin Behnam, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said Thursday that Bitcoin could ‘double its price’ if traded on a CFTC-regulated exchange.
Chairman of the Crypto Industry Association stated that there was a huge opportunity for institutional inflows into crypto, but that this could only happen if there is a regulatory structure.
These comments are coming as crypto industry faces increasing scrutiny globally, from Tether’s well documentedlegal woes stateside.
Some governments, such as the UAE, are also keen to embrace Web3 and crypto, seeing them as a potential source of growth.
Behnam believes that the wave of regulation coming to crypto may not be a bad thing. He said that non-bank [crypto] institutions thrive upon regulation. They thrive on regulatory certainty. They thrive on a level playing ground […] because their staff is the most resourceful, smartest and most efficient.
CFTC and crypto
Behnam stated that the CFTC’s current funding and resources prevent it from pursuing a wider regulation of crypto industry. This could help weed out unscrupulous players.
He pointed out that most cases being pursued by CFTC relied on customer complaints and whistleblowers due to a lack funding for its own investigations.
He also stated that he had a bill from the Senate Agriculture Committee that would designate CFTC the main regulator for the crypto industry.
This would help to clarify who is responsible in the United States for regulating the sector. At the moment, this is done by both the CFTC and Securities and Exchange Commission.