THE FEATURE What to Expect When CFTC, SEC Chiefs Talk Crypto With Congress Congress is set to hold what may be the most consequential hearing in years on the subject of cryptocurrency, with the heads of the two main U.S. financial market regulators in the hot seat. J. Christopher Giancarlo, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Jay Clayton, his counterpart at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), will testify on Capitol Hill today. And the process of fielding questions from the Senate Banking Committee is likely to yield one or two notable moments given recent developments in the space – including those involving the agencies themselves. In recent months, the two agencies have, between them, filed lawsuits against alleged scams, launched investigations, overseen the launch of bitcoin futures, issued warnings to investors and, perhaps more broadly, come to terms with a rapidly-evolving environment that has, in the words of their leaders, tested the limits of their reach. Ahead of the hearing, copies of both Clayton's and Giancarlo's testimony have been released. While largely an overview of their respective agencies' work to date, both leaders suggested that they would support, in some way, new avenues of regulation that could lead to an expansion of oversight by the U.S. government into the cryptocurrency market. Yet such an undertaking would, in their view, require an act of Congress – as well as close involvement with the relevant agencies.... |
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