American Regulatory Authority CFTC reviews Ethereum Futures
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has published a Request for Information (RFI) requesting public comments and feedback in order to better understand Ether and the Ethereum block chain in order to approve Ether futures if necessary.
In a press release issued yesterday, the CFTC stated that it is seeking feedback to broaden its understanding of the technology and functioning of Ethereum. In line with the innovation-friendly attitude of the CFTC, RFI is one of several methods it uses to ensure that fair regulation takes place that does not hamper innovation. CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo is himself a crypto proponent and has recently stated that crypto currencies “have come to stay”.
The objective of the request for information is, according to an extract from the announcement, as follows:
In an information request (RFI) published in the Federal Register, the CFTC asks for public feedback on a number of issues related to the underlying technology, opportunities, risks, mechanics, use cases and markets related to ether and the Ethereum network. […] RFI also tries to understand similarities and differences between ether and Bitcoin as well as ether-specific opportunities, challenges and risks.
The announcement could be an indication of the testing of an ether futures trading system. To this day, Bitcoin is the only crypto currency with regulated futures trading in the USA. If it turns out that the CFTC actually declares the admission of ether futures, this could have a significant positive impact on the ether price after ETH was recently deposed by XRP as the second largest crypto currency by market capitalization.
Is Ethereum a security?
Crypto enthusiasts cheered in June when the US Securities and Exchange Commission in the person of William Hinman declared that he did not believe that Ether in its current form was a security. Afterwards, Cboe Global Markets Inc. President Chris Concannon stated that the announcement had removed an “important stumbling block for ether futures”.
The CFTC dampened part of this optimism on Tuesday by pointing out that it still had some fundamental open questions about ethereum and referred directly to Hinman and said that his remark conveyed his “personal views”. The question of whether Ethereum is a security thus seems more unresolved than ever.
