According to Rostin Behnum, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the growing number of crypto-related fraud and manipulation cases require more resources from regulators, wall street journal informed of.
Behnam said during a video appearance on ChainalysisLink, “It became very common to hear headlines about the loss of tens of millions of dollars in digital assets due to protocol exploits, phishing attacks, hunting vulnerable people and other fraud and manipulative schemes.” Huh.” Conference on Wednesday.
Behnum also argued that “recent global conflicts have exposed the potential of digital assets for those that present risks to the broader US economy, the public, and our lives.”
The CFTC chairman’s remarks came in the wake of the collapse of Terra, which sent shock waves across the crypto market.
As data from CoinMarketCap shows, nearly $350 billion of the total market capitalization of crypto was wiped out in the past ten days.
According to Behnum, the CFTC has filed more than 50 enforcement actions related to the activity since 2015, of which 23 cases were filed within the last fiscal year.
He added that more than half of the total cases related to crypto involve fraudulent charges.
“I call on everyone here today to continue advocating and supporting regulatory obligations that will make these markets more transparent, secure and resilient,” Behnam said. “As I have said many times, crypto markets offer unique features that would benefit from federal market monitoring.”
CFTC Joins SEC in Crypto Concerns
The CFTC, which oversees the US derivatives markets, is not the only regulator expressing its intention to onboard a more crypto-focused workforce.
Earlier this month, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it was expanding its crypto investigation unit – now renamed the “Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit” – to 50 people Will be tasked with overseeing crypto exchanges, lending and mortgage services. decentralized finance (DeFi) projects, stable coinsAnd this NFT Area.
On Wednesday, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler expressed concern that more investors would suffer losses in the future, per a Fox Business report good.
“I think a lot of these tokens will fail,” Gensler told reporters after the House Appropriations Committee panel hearing. “I fear that in crypto… a lot of people are going to get hurt, and that will reduce some of the confidence in the markets.”
Want to become a crypto expert? Get the best of Decrypt straight to your inbox.
Receive the biggest crypto news + weekly roundups and more!