On March 26, 2024, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) filed a complaint (the “Complaint”) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (“SDNY”) for injunctive and other relief against...more
4/8/2024
/ BSA/AML ,
CFTC ,
Commodities ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Crypto Exchanges ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Futures Commission Merchants (FCMs) ,
Popular ,
Statutory Violations ,
Trading Platforms
On Friday, March 15, 2024, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) Market Risk Advisory Committee (“MRAC”) convened two roundtables in Washington DC....more
On January 25, 2024, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) published, first, Release No. 8854-24, a customer advisory cautioning the public to beware of artificial intelligence (“AI”) scams (the “AI Advisory”),...more
2/13/2024
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
CFTC ,
Comment Period ,
Commodities ,
Commodities Traders ,
Commodity Sale Agreements ,
Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) ,
Derivatives ,
Innovative Technology ,
Investment ,
Investment Management
On October 2, 2023, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “Commission” or “CFTC”) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (the “Proposed Rule”) to amend CFTC Regulation 4.7, which provides exemptions to registered...more
On August 29, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas entered a consent order ("Order") and imposed sanctions on Barelt Media and its owner Ryan Masten for operating an unregistered commodity trading...more
In a recently published white paper, JPMorgan outlined its approach to improving and strengthening voluntary carbon markets to promote scalable decarbonization efforts. JPMorgan focused its analysis on voluntary carbon...more
7/25/2023
/ Business Strategies ,
Carbon Emissions ,
CFTC ,
Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Commodities ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
JPMorgan Chase ,
Net Zero ,
White Papers
On June 20, following a number of consultative papers, reports, committee hearings and public speeches by representatives of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”), the staff of CFTC’s Division of Enforcement...more
Earlier this month members of Congress jointly introduced the “Energy Consumer Protection Act of 2023,” with the intention of expanding the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (“FERC”) ability to address energy market...more
5/19/2023
/ CFTC ,
Commodities ,
Energy Market ,
Enforcement Authority ,
Federal Power Act ,
FERC ,
Jurisdiction ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Natural Gas Act ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Trading Policies
On March 27, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”), the U.S. derivatives regulator, charged three Binance entities (collectively “Binance”) and its founder and chief compliance officer (“CCO”) with numerous...more
4/7/2023
/ CFTC ,
Commodities ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Crypto Exchanges ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Derivatives ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Futures Commission Merchants (FCMs) ,
Statutory Violations ,
Trading Platforms
On March 29, the National Futures Association (“NFA”) promulgated Compliance Rule 2-51, setting forth Requirements for Members and Associates Engaged in Activities Involving Digital Asset Commodities, which includes both...more
4/6/2023
/ Anti-Fraud Provisions ,
Bitcoin ,
Commodities ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Derivatives ,
Digital Assets ,
Ethereum ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
National Futures Association ,
New Guidance ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Virtual Currency
Many of the transactions involving qualified financial contracts (“QFC”) with Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”) and Signature Bank constitute Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) jurisdictional transactions that may be...more
3/15/2023
/ CFTC ,
Commodities ,
Deposit Accounts ,
Deposit Insurance ,
Depository Institutions ,
Derivatives ,
Enforcement Actions ,
FDIC ,
Financial Institutions ,
Futures ,
Insolvency ,
Qualified Financial Contracts (QFC) ,
Receivership ,
Silicon Valley ,
Swaps
On January 23, the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”), Rostin Behnam, announced in his keynote speech at the Commodity Markets Council’s annual conference that the CFTC “can play a role in voluntary...more
On September 26, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) published an order settling charges against Asset Risk Management, LLC (“ARM”), a registered commodity trading advisor (“CTA”) headquartered in Houston,...more
10/14/2022
/ CFTC ,
Commodities ,
Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Failure to Comply ,
Market Participants ,
Registration Requirement ,
Sanctions ,
Swap Execution Facilities ,
Swap Market ,
Swaps
On September 22, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) asserted its jurisdiction over a decentralized autonomous organization (“DAO”) and its founders, signaling for the industry that even an unincorporated...more
9/30/2022
/ Blockchain ,
CFTC ,
Commodities ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ,
Designated Contract Markets (DCMs) ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Futures Commission Merchants (FCMs) ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Token Sales
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) has two levels of jurisdiction under the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”).
First, there is an exclusive (or regulatory) jurisdiction over “derivatives” on “commodities,”...more
7/29/2022
/ CFTC ,
Commodities ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Markets ,
FinTech ,
Investment Fraud ,
Market Manipulation ,
Price Manipulation ,
Pump and Dump ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Statutory Violations
Once in a while, a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) enforcement action confirms market participants’ worst fears that the CFTC is prepared to, and is able to, find violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”)...more
On June 24, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) sanctioned Starberry Limited, a Cyprus entity, for operating in the U.S. as an unregistered futures commission merchant (“FCM”) and ordered it to pay $1.3 million...more
On June 2, 2022, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) convened for the first time market participants to discuss the state and the challenges of the U.S. voluntary carbon credit (“VCC”) markets and, at the end of...more