US Senator John Boozman (R-AR) disclosed. federal courts and the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) considered bitcoin a commodity.
In his opening remarks for the hearing titled “Why Congress Needs to Act: Lessons Learned from the FTX Collapse” on Thursday, Boozman said that bitcoin is a commodity in the eyes of prosecutors. He added that Exchanges that allow BTC trading must be regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
“Bitcoin, despite being a cryptocurrency, is a commodity. It is a commodity in the eyes of the federal courts and in the opinion of the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). There is no dispute about this,” he said, added:
“If there are exchanges where commodities are traded – whether it’s wheat, oil or bitcoin – then it needs to be regulated. It’s as simple as that.
The senator mentioned the collapse of FTX, once the third largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, saying that despite being a foreign company, it caused the loss of US customers.
He added that the CFTC is the right agency to regulate digital products, which includes bitcoin and therefore any cryptocurrency exchange that offers BTC trading. He stated that the CFTC can help protect consumers by establishing and enforcing constructive and workable regulatory structures to make the markets work.
“There is no better example than the CFTC’s regulation of the futures market, which has proven to be one of the most stable markets, thanks in large part to the CFTC’s tried and trusted regulatory regime , based on principles.”
Established in 1974, the CFTC is an independent US government agency that regulates derivatives markets, including futures, swaps and some types of options. Rostin Behnam is now the chairman of the CFTC.
At the first congressional hearing on Thursday, Behnam said cryptocurrencies “potentially pose a national security threatafter senators asked him about the lack of space regulation.
Behnam also noted that regulating cryptocurrencies is not an easy task. He said that cryptocurrencies will exist even if the US government wants to ban them completely. He said that despite the regulations and restrictions known as geofencing, 2% of FTX’s customers are from the United States.
“It shouldn’t have happened,” he said. “People will find a way to expose themselves to offshore entities and activities, even if it’s illegal in the United States — and we need to do something about it.”