The chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) believes Ether (ETH) is a commodity — and that ETH futures trading is becoming a reality. Heath Tarbert, who overtook J. Christopher Giancarlo in July, revealed his stance toward cryptocurrencies and forked coins at the All Markets Summit on Oct. 10, Yahoo Finance reports. First CFTC guidance on Ether While the CFTC has been very clear that Bitcoin is a commodity, this is reportedly the first time that the authority has provided a vision for Ether, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market cap. Tarbert said: “We've been very clear on …
United States Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) Chairman Jay Clayton confirmed that Ethereum (ETH) and cryptocurrencies like it aren’t securities under U.S. law, non-profit crypto research organization Coin Center reports on March 12. Citing a letter written by Clayton, Coin Center reports that the SEC staff has found that ETH is not a security under U.S. law. In September last year, Coin Center worked with U.S. representative Ted Budd to send a co-signed letter to Clayton asking whether he agreed with the approach to ETH of the SEC’s director of corporate finance, William Hinman. As Cointelegraph reported in June last …
A couple of United States lawmakers are looking to classify stablecoins as securities. With Libra considering adopting fiat-pegged stablecoins rather than a single token supported by a basket of national currencies, the proposed crypto project might be facing yet another regulatory hurdle. Meanwhile, lawmakers sponsoring the bill say stablecoins should be classified as securities to protect U.S. consumers. If passed, stablecoin projects like Libra will potentially fall under the purview of stringent U.S. securities regulations. Critics of the move remark that such measures only serve to further dampen the country’s position in the emerging digital landscape. Some commentators have long …
Former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, Jay Clayton, was appointed by ex-President Donald Trump to serve in 2017. In his tenure as head of the SEC, Clayton often defended Bitcoin (BTC) as a store of value. This past Wednesday, during an interview with CNBC's Squawk Box show, Jay shared his thoughts on cryptocurrency and how it should be regulated going forward. The former SEC chair said that he is a “huge believer in crypto technology” and that its efficiency advantages in the financial system and tokenization are enormous. "I am a huge believer in this …
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has started ramping up its crackdown on the crypto industry and recent enforcement actions had a negative impact on crypto prices last week and at the start of this week. The SEC is focusing on stablecoin issuers. The most recent SEC stablecoin crackdown was on Feb. 13 through the issuance of a Wells Notice to Paxos Trust Company, the issuer of Binance USD (BUSD). While Paxos denies that BUSD is a security, which would place it outside the SEC’s jurisdiction, some lawyers say the answer is not so simple, which creates fear …