CFTC Chairman Confirms Bitcoin, Ether Are Commodities. Are Regulations good for the Growth of the Crypto Ecosystem?

In an interview with CNBC last week, CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam discussed the CFTC and SEC's supervision of cryptocurrencies. The chairman was asked for his thoughts on a plan in Congress that would place the Securities and Exchange Commission in control of security tokens and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission in charge of commodity tokens.

"This is a long-standing dispute between the CFTC and the SEC. We had a fantastic history together... Commodities should be regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and securities should be regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission," Behnam explained.

Some currencies in the crypto world will be securities, while others will be commodities, according to the CFTC chairman.

When asked about SEC Chairman Gary Gensler's contention that most crypto tokens are securities, Behnam emphasized that the most popular cryptocurrencies are commodities. He stressed:

I can say with certainty that bitcoin... is a commodity As well as Ether

I think regulation of Bitcoin could potentially be good or bad for the mainstream adoption of Cryptocurrencies. Regulation could help prevent scams and protect the interest of users, regulations would create a framework for investors to work with to further expand the growth of the ecosystem. Regulation would help accelerate the mainstream adoption of Bitcoin.

Also one has to consider the blockchain ecosystem which continues to experience exponential growth by enabling the creation of innovative projects such as Decentraland an online world that allows users to create their own avatars and purchase plots of virtual land, Planet Maya which is powered by champions games is a decentralized and collaborative online casino which allows developers to build Games around betting, Luckyblock which is a digital asset project that decentralizies the lottery process via blockchain technology and many more that could change how diverse industries operate from real estate, gaming, insurance, academia. The need for regulation increases as blockchain technology becomes more mainstream and becomes a part of different industries of human endeavour.

I think it is quite ironic that a decentralized network should be subject to regulation by a central body but a much needed evil it Bitcoin is to become mainstream. Regulations could mean that Bitcoin is subject to the whims of these regulatory bodies making the decentralized network lose it's decentralized nature indirectly. It will be interesting to see how these regulatory bodies regulate Bitcoin.

News Source: https://news.bitcoin.com/cftc-chairman-confirms-bitcoin-ether-are-commodities/

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