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In an interview with a local news channel yesterday, US Congressman Darren Soto went on record to state that the American crypto industry (as a whole) should be managed by the nation’s Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) instead of being administered by the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission).
Soto is a member of the US Democratic party who represents the 9th District of Florida. Over the past couple of months, he has been in the limelight for his efforts to push forth an agenda (along with Congressman Ted Budd) that hopes to establish a “robust and crypto-friendly regulatory environment” within the United States.
In his opinion, the altcoin domain needs more “clarity of definition” at the moment since the application of existing federal securities laws on crypto assets can hurt the market in a big way as we move into a more digitized future.
On the matter Soto went on to state the following:
“We’ll be saving the SEC for true securities, knowing predominantly that these are commodities and currency transactions. The [CFTC and FTC] are agencies with a lighter touch and we have grown consensus among the industry that they’d be appropriate for the majority of these types of cryptocurrency transactions and the nature of these assets.”
More On The Matter
In Soto’s opinion, heavy regulation is slowly eroding the global competitiveness of the United States economic sector within this burgeoning market. In this regard, Soto believes that countries such as Malta, Barbados have done the right thing by establishing an economic framework that is designed to foster the development of the crypto industry in a sustainable fashion.
“We have sometimes taken for granted that the U.S. dollar is the foundation of the world economy, and how that creates stability and advantage […] As cryptocurrency becomes more utilized, that advantage could go away… [we] need to make sure we are aggressive and a fertile place for cryptocurrency transactions and for technology companies to be here.”
Final Take
In closing out this article, it is worth mentioning that the U.S. currently does not have a single administrative body to oversee the regulation and adoption of crypto assets in a simple, streamlined manner.
For example, while the CFTC has determined some major altcoins such as Bitcoin to be commodities there are a whole host of other regulatory bodies which have contended that a majority of digital currencies (that have been sold via initial coin offerings) are securities— thereby bringing such assets under the control of the SEC.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the views of Bitcoin Insider. Every investment and trading move involves risk - this is especially true for cryptocurrencies given their volatility. We strongly advise our readers to conduct their own research when making a decision.