SEC Chairman Says CFTC Should Get More Power to Oversee Stablecoins: Report

Gary Gensler pointed out that the CFTC doesn't have direct authority to write rules for the firms that issue stablecoins.

Oct 14, 2022 at 6:26 p.m. UTC

Updated Oct 17, 2022 at 4:31 p.m. UTC

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U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler said Friday the Commodity Futures Trading Commission should be given more authority to police stablecoins, according to a report by Reuters.

Speaking at event in Washington, Gensler argued that stablecoins are very similar to money-market markets and should be regulated accordingly, Reuters wrote.

And while the CFTC has regulatory authority over dollar-backed stablecoin issuers in the areas of fraud and manipulation, it doesn’t have “direct regulatory authorities over the underlying non-security tokens,“ Gensler pointed out.

Momentum in Congress is gaining to make the CFTC the regulator of the spot market for tokens that aren’t considered securities, such as bitcoin, while the SEC would oversee those cryptocurrencies that are considered securities.

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