US CFTC Chairman: CFTC's Lack of Regulatory Jurisdiction Over Crypto Markets Puts Markets at Risk

July 10, 2011 - According to Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett, U.S. Senator Cory Booker said, "We've pushed our work to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), but abuses are still prevalent in the market." He also noted that nearly half of the cases in the CFTC's enforcement files are related to cryptocurrencies, calling the situation "extraordinary."

CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam commented on Booker's observation that half of the agency's files are cryptocurrency enforcement cases, saying that "the statistic that an agency that regulates a trillion-dollar market has to regulate a market it has no jurisdiction over and no access to funding is alarming," and said the situation puts both markets at risk.

Booker then turned to Senators Sen Stabenow and John Boozman and said, "The situation is urgent, so I'm asking us to move faster. If we don't act and do something quickly, more and more people will suffer and more and more people will lose their money."