With a formal departure announcement from US Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Rostin Behnam, January 20 is now the last official day for both heads of US markets regulators. .
Behnam joins Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler in choosing the last day of President Joe Biden’s administration as the last day of running their respective agencies. When President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in again, his new administration will have new vacancies atop those commissions.
“We have welcomed new opportunities to modernize, develop capabilities and, with the support of Congress, incorporate the innovations that shape our markets,” he said in a statement Tuesday upon his departure, first from the presidency and then, the next month, of the presidency. the commission itself. Behnam noted that during his tenure the CFTC “responsibly engaged new participants to support innovation.”
It leaves the CFTC on the cusp of what is likely to be a future rise to take over the regulation of crypto spot markets, including bitcoin (BTC) trading. In most legislative efforts seeking to set the rules of the game in the United States for the crypto sector, the derivatives watchdog takes a leading role. Behnam’s Republican replacement will likely lead that new allocation if Congress ultimately passes a bill.
While Behnam’s agency got some credit from the crypto sector for being more reasonable than the SEC, it was also responsible for some of the harshest enforcement actions against digital asset companies.
Read more: US CFTC Chairman Behnam says regulator will move forward with Kalshi case
