US CFTC commissioner warns of risks if crypto firms self-certify

NEW YORK: A top official with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) plans to warn lawmakers against allowing cryptocurrency exchanges to self-certify with the agency to list products for trading.

The CFTC already allows self-certification for exchanges to list contracts for other products, such as commodities.

Lawmakers were considering a similar process as part of proposed crypto legislation being hammered out last year.

But CFTC commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero said the process would open the door to “regulatory arbitrage” as some crypto assets are likely securities that need to be overseen by a different agency, the Securities and Exchange Commission. “Oversight is necessary to prevent abuse” of the process, she said, according to remarks prepared for an event at the University of Pennsylvania.