As Prometheum, the necessary and handiest company to loyal a particular plot broker dealer license from the US Securities and Replace Commission, gears up to initiate its procuring and selling operation, Commodity and Futures Shopping and selling Commission Chairman Rostin Behnam acknowledged principles across agencies might per chance become conflicting.
Bitcoin and ether are commodities, Behnam suggested the Home Committee on Agriculture for the length of testimony Wednesday. He believes that any say that Prometheum can be making to the contrary is not any longer reflective of the SEC’s stance.
“From my working out, certainly studying the clicking and chatting with my workers, who assemble reached out to the SEC, this used to be an fair chance by Prometheum…to signal to the market that it is their intent to custody both,” Behnam acknowledged when requested about how the CFTC views ether.
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“So it is my working out that this used to be no longer the least bit a chance by the SEC, this used to be an person chance by the entity,” Behnam added.
Behnam used to be regarding Prometheum’s most modern announcement that it would initiate its custody carrier with ether as its first asset. The announcement raised eyebrows across the crypto industry as onlookers speculated whether or no longer the news might per chance power the SEC to steal a extra negate dwelling on ether’s reputation as a security or commodity.
“How this plays clearly might be very serious…the difficulty is that if we believe assemble any drag by the SEC, certainly validating [Prometheum’s] chance constituting ether as a security this might then establish our registrants or exchanges who listing both as a futures contract form of in non-compliance of SEC principles as a replacement of CFTC principles,” Behnam added.
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Behnam’s feedback had been according to a establish a matter to from Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson — a identified supporter of the crypto industry — about how ether being classified as a security might per chance impact the CFTC’s jurisdiction. The CFTC lets in registered commodity derivatives exchanges to listing both derivatives contracts.
