Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.) and top-ranking Republican John Boozman of Arkansas, are planning to introduce a bill Wednesday that would empower the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to regulate spot markets for digital commodities, a newly created asset class. Currently the CFTC has authority to police derivatives, such as futures and swaps, rather than underlying commodities.
“When there’s a topic as hot as crypto, everybody wants a seat at the table,” said Aaron Klein, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution who focuses on financial regulation. “The question is, are we going to have regulatory turf paralysis?”