Former CFTC Chair Gary Gensler Says Crypto Market Needs Regulation in Order to Grow

Former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Gary Gensler said that the cryptocurrency market needs regulation in order to grow, because consumers must be protected. Gensler shared his views with Cointelegraph at MIT Technology Review's Business of Blockchain 2019 on May 2.

Speaking about the perspective on such services and products as custody and bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Gensler argued that for the market to prosper and potentially grow, investors should know that they have both investor and consumer protection embodied in the law in case of market manipulation or losing of private keys, among other issues.

When asked whether a bitcoin ETF would be impactful if approved, Gensler stated “the Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] is doing their work to ensure that if there is an exchange-traded fund, that the markets themselves for those exchange-traded funds and the underlying bitcoin or ethereum it’s referencing is not readily susceptible to manipulation.”

According to Gensler, it is important to make sure markets are appropriately overseen and sufficiently mature, and that the chance of manipulation is small or very limited.

At the MIT Bitcoin Expo 2019 in March, Gensler delivered arguments in favor of extending national level regulation over a broader spectrum of crypto trading, coordinating money laundering prevention and addressing the current regulatory and enforcement discrepancies across different states.

At the same conference, SEC Commissioner Hester M. Peirce advocated for a lighter regulatory touch when possible, while affirming that security offerings must comply with the SEC’s registration requirements.

Yesterday, current CFTC chairman Christopher Giancarlo said that the agency is expecting more applications to open clearinghouses, driven by increased interest in cryptocurrencies, particularly bitcoin.