CFTC Chairman Giancarlo Interview Suggests “Do No Harm” Approach from Regulators

CFTC Chairman Says “Policy Making Needs to be Slow, Deliberate and Well Informed”

Regulators in the United States have been continually working on establishing appropriate restrictions and requirements for the cryptocurrency. In an interview at the annual Singapore Summit today, J. Christopher Giancarlo believes that a “do no harm” approach would be the best option. Giancarlo is presently a chairman for the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

This approach, Chairman Giancarlo notes, is actually from the beginning stages of the Internet, which was given the opportunity to grow and thrive as a result of the government staying out of it. He said:

“I'm advocating the same approach to cryptocurrencies and all things having to do with this new digital revolution of markets, and of currencies, and of asset classes.”

Still, Giancarlo says that there is a different between the short-term approach of handling potentially illicit activity and the long-term approach of making decisions for the industry. He said:

“When it comes to fraud and manipulation, we need to be strong. When it comes to policy making, I think we need to be slow and deliberate and well informed.”

As he went on, the Chairman rejected the allegations that the United States has been taking its time to make decisions. He said that the CFTC had personally watch over the “very first” regulated offerings that involved Bitcoin futures.

The biggest debate, it seems, is the way that crypto should be defined by regulators, and which department is supposed to take this classification on. At a hearing recently, many speakers discussed how the concept of digital assets actually makes it nearly impossible to integrate it to the current framework that exists for these regulations.

So far, there have been two cases that federal judges used to confirm how the federal commodity regulations apply to Bitcoin. They also reviewed how to apply securities laws for cases that need to prosecute potential fraud within the cryptocurrency industry.