As the U.S. regulatory agencies remain undecided on who should be having an upper hand in regulating the crypto market, the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is reportedly getting an upper hand in its race with the SEC.
In July, the Senate Agriculture Committee sponsored a bipartisan bill giving the U.S. CFTC a lead role in the spot trading of Bitcoin and Ethereum. The previously induced Senate legislation has also emphasized the CFTC’s role.
On the other hand, the U.S. SEC has been pushing to get its hold, at least on the smaller coins, which it deems to be securities rather than commodities. So even if the CFTC takes the bulk of the responsibility, the crypto exchanges might have to register with the SEC as broker-dealers.
However, some of the top crypto exchanges like Coinbase have objected to the SEC’s call.
Over the last year, CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam has been looking to get the authority of regulating the digital commodity spot markets.
The U.S. CFTC gets a budget of $1.5 billion a year and employs nearly 700 people. On the other hand, the SEC gets $2.65 billion in funding employing more than 5000 staffers. CFTC Commissioner Chris Giancarlo said that if Congress were to grant the CFTC an additional piece of legislation, it will also have to give them additional funds.
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