Friday, March 27, 2025, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) formally withdrew two crypto-related staff advisories, Staff Advisory No. 18-14 (advisory with respect to virtual currency derivative product...more
On March 11, 2025 at the 50th Annual International Futures Industry (“FIA”) Conference, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) Acting Chairman Caroline Pham delivered a ground-breaking keynote covering administrative...more
3/21/2025
/ Capital Markets ,
CFTC ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Derivatives ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Penalties ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Swaps
President Donald Trump recently addressed the new administration’s policies on financial regulations, artificial intelligence (“AI”), and digital assets (i.e., cryptocurrency). Through a series of executive orders (“EO”),...more
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 September 19, 2023, the jurisdictional boundaries between the regulation of swaps by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) and the regulation of security-based swaps (“SBSs”) by the Securities and Exchange...more
The CFTC has announced three enforcement actions this month that further cement the CFTC’s jurisdiction over the decentralized finance space (“DeFi”). Back in 2022, the CFTC filed its first DeFi cases, including the...more
On July 12, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democratic senator from New York who sits on the Senate Banking Committee, and Senator Cynthia Lummis, a Republican senator from Wyoming who sits on the Agriculture Committee, joined...more
8/2/2023
/ Bitcoin ,
CFTC ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
FinTech ,
Investment ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
On May 30, 2023, the Division of Clearing and Risk (“DCR”) of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) issued an advisory (“05/30/23 DCO Advisory”) relating to registered, or those seeking to register as, derivatives...more
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
Churchill is credited with saying “Never let a good crisis go to waste” at the end of WWII in reference to lessons learned in rebuilding the post-war world. The rolling collapse in crypto and digital assets’ markets, and...more
In response to changes in business practices, regulations and laws eventually change, too. During the past few years derivatives markets are witnessing this change as it applies to trading facilities as well as to entities...more
3/3/2023
/ CFTC ,
Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs) ,
Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) ,
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ,
Derivatives ,
Designated Contract Markets (DCMs) ,
Digital Assets ,
Dodd-Frank ,
European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) ,
Financial Markets ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Swap Dealers ,
Swap Execution Facilities ,
Swaps
On December 14, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) introduced in the U.S. Senate a new bipartisan bill, titled "Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2022" (the “Bill”), intended to curb the...more
12/20/2022
/ AML/CFT ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
CFTC ,
Digital Assets ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Transactions ,
FinCEN ,
Money Laundering ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Terrorist Financing Regulations ,
U.S. Treasury
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
On September 8, the White House published a report (“Climate-Crypto Report”) on Climate and Energy Implications of Crypto-Assets in the United States, which was followed by a detailed Fact Sheet summarizing the findings in...more
9/23/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Cryptoassets ,
Digital Assets ,
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) ,
Energy Sector ,
Energy Use Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Justice ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
New Regulations ,
Popular ,
Power Grid ,
Regulatory Agenda
On August 3, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat from Michigan, and John Boozman, the top Republican on the committee, introduced a bipartisan bill aimed at regulating digital assets....more
8/5/2022
/ CFTC ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Digital Currency ,
Digital Markets Strategy ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Regulatory Reform
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
In last week's Cabinet News and Views, we examined the U.S. regulators' approach to the digital asset space, with a focus on the assertion of jurisdiction by the CFTC, the SEC, prudential regulators, state executive and...more
7/18/2022
/ Bitcoin ,
Blockchain ,
CFTC ,
Crypto Exchanges ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Digital Currency ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Fraud ,
Financial Markets ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Transactions ,
Investment Opportunities ,
Market Manipulation ,
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) ,
Popular ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Securities Regulation ,
Token Sales ,
Trading Platforms
As more market participants, from consumers to major financial institutions and central banks of various countries, become active in the digital asset space, the U.S. regulators are ramping up their oversight activity related...more
7/11/2022
/ Blockchain ,
CFTC ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Federal Jurisdiction ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Stablecoins
Earlier this week, U.S. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) introduced the first comprehensive legislation to establish a regulatory framework for digital assets to promote innovation, delineate...more
6/10/2022
/ Blockchain ,
CFTC ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) ,
FERC ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
IRS ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Smart Contracts ,
Stablecoins
On May 25, 2022, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) conducted a public hearing to consider a request from LedgerX, LLC, d.b.a. FTX US Derivatives (“FTX”), to amend its order of registration as a...more