Rostin Behnam, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), stated on September 29 that the price of the flagship cryptocurrency could double if it traded on a market under CFTC control.
Behnam also noted that the crypto sector does have “a massive opportunity for institutional inflows that will only occur if there’s a regulatory structure.”
The remarks come as the cryptocurrency business is coming under increasing scrutiny on a worldwide scale, from Brazil to Australia to the well-known legal issues of Tether in the United States. Nevertheless, some governments, such as those in Japan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), seem eager to accept Web3 and cryptocurrencies as growth opportunities.
Behnam believes that the surge of regulation that is coming for cryptocurrencies may not be all negative. Since they are the smartest, fastest, and most resourceful, the chairman noted that “non-bank [crypto] institutions thrive on regulation, they thrive on regulatory certainty, and they thrive on a level playing field.”
The CFTC’s existing funding structure and resource allocation, according to Behnam, prohibit it from seeking broader regulation of the cryptocurrency business, which would help filter out deceitful operators.
Because of a lack of resources to conduct its own inspections, he pointed out that the CFTC has depended on information, complaints from customers, and whistleblowers in the overwhelming majority of cases it has investigated.
The chair continued by saying he was in favor of a measure put up by the Senate Agriculture Committee that would name the CFTC as the primary regulator of the cryptocurrency sector.
This line-drawing would ultimately make it clear who is in charge of overseeing the industry in the United States which is currently handled by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the CFTC at the same time.