The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) reported on October 20 that 82 enforcement actions totalling $2.5 billion in compensatory damages, confiscation, and civil monetary penalties were brought in the fiscal year of 2022. These actions were either settled out of court or resulted from litigation.
CFTC chairman Rostin Behnam stated that this FY 2022 enforcement report demonstrates that CFTC continues to aggressively regulate new digital commodity asset markets with all of its existing tools. The CFTC reported that 20% of the enforcements were directed at digital asset businesses.
The U.S. commodities regulator has revealed that it was responsible for 18 different regulatory actions targeting digital assets in the fiscal year 2022. It is clear that it does not want to appear to be being lenient toward cryptocurrencies.
The CFTC also noted measures taken against the owners of the Digitex Futures exchange during the course of the year for unlawful futures offerings, manipulation of its native token DGTX, and failure to provide customer identity and anti-money laundering programme.
A $250,000 fine levied in September against bZeroX, its successor Ooki DAO, and its creators were one of the more recent CFTC enforcement actions to garner attention in the cryptocurrency community. Because it targeted members of a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO), the action drew fiery criticism from the public. CFTC commissioner Summer Mersinger called it “blatant regulation by enforcement.”
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) are now squabbling about who will regulate crypto assets. CFTC chairman Rostin Behnam has vowed to crack down hard on the asset class, saying: “Don’t expect a free pass,” earlier this month. The crypto industry had previously favoured the CFTC for being fairly easy on regulating digital assets.
Senators Cynthia Lummis and Kirsten Gillibrand proposed legislation in June that would have the CFTC oversee cryptocurrency regulation. This would be much better for the industry because the assets would be treated as commodities rather than securities, which are subject to much stricter regulations.
However, Jim Himes, a congressman, said last week that Congress is unlikely to focus on regulating digital assets until sometime in the following year as the mid-term elections approach.