United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chair Rostin Behnam highlighted his agency’s activity in the crypto sphere and the need for up-to-date legislation at the Financial Industry Association Expo 2023 event in Chicago. He described the CFTC Enforcement Division’s efforts as a “nonstop drumbeat.”
In the text version of his keynote address to the industry group, Behnam recounted the $6 billion his agency collected in penalties in fiscal year 2023. He added:
“45 of those [enforcement] actions this fiscal year involved digital asset related misconduct, representing over 34% of the 131 such actions brought by the Commission since 2015.”
Behnam singled out the “precedent-setting litigation” his agency won against Ooki DAO, which resulted in the closure of the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) and netted a $643,542 penalty. In its default judgment against Ooki DAO, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California found that the DAO was a “person” under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) of 1936.
Behnam returned to the CEA when he discussed the agency’s future direction. “The cornerstone of our latest era is disintermediation brought about by groundbreaking technology: DeFi, AI, and standard WiFi,” he said, but:
“The limits in the CEA established in essentially another era create real barriers to engaging in rulemakings and policy that is necessary to our mission, but just beyond our scope.”
Furthermore, those limits “forc[e] the agency to engage in increasingly resource intensive quests for assurances that we are acting within the bounds of our intended remit.”
Vertical integration — an “outgrowth of electronification and the promise of DeFi” — is occurring throughout financial markets and leading to egulatory concerns, and “customer protections mean something different now,” according to Behnam.
Behnam’s statements contrasted sharply with Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler’s position that Depression-era financial legislation “has been quite a benefit to investors and economic growth over the last 90 years,” and should not be tampered with.
Behnam also indirectly addressed limitations on the CFTC’s enforcement authority. “To suggest that […] we must wait until victims suffer and cry out for help to be proactive […] undermines our mission and purpose,” he said. “I have continued to advocate for additional authority in the crypto space,” he added later.
Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield has resigned from the Labour Party.
The 53-year-old MP is the first to jump ship since the general election and in her resignation letter criticised the prime minister for accepting thousands of pounds worth of gifts.
She told Sir Keir Starmer the reason for leaving now is “the programme of policies you seem determined to stick to”, despite their unpopularity with the electorate and MPs.
In her letter she accused the prime minister and his top team of “sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice” which are “off the scale”.
“I’m so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party,” she said.
Since December 2019, the prime minister received £107,145 in gifts, benefits, and hospitality – a specific category in parliament’s register of MPs’ interests.
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Ms Duffield, who has previously clashed with the prime minister on gender issues, attacked the government for pursuing “cruel and unnecessary” policies as she resigned the Labour whip.
She criticised the decision to keep the two-child benefit cap and means-test the winter fuel payment, and accused the prime minister of “hypocrisy” over his acceptance of free gifts from donors.
“Since the change of government in July, the revelations of hypocrisy have been staggering and increasingly outrageous,” she said.
“I cannot put into words how angry I and my colleagues are at your total lack of understanding about how you have made us all appear.”
Ms Duffield also mentioned the recent “treatment of Diane Abbott”, who said she thought she had been barred from standing by Labour ahead of the general election, before Sir Keir said she would be allowed to defend her Hackney North and Stoke Newington seat for the party.
Her relationship with the Labour leadership has long been strained and her decision to quit the party comes after seven other Labour MPs were suspended for rebelling by voting for a motion calling for the two-child benefit cap to be abolished.
“Someone with far-above-average wealth choosing to keep the Conservatives’ two-child limit to benefit payments which entrenches children in poverty, while inexplicably accepting expensive personal gifts of designer suits and glasses costing more than most of those people can grasp – this is entirely undeserving of holding the title of Labour prime minister,” she said.
Ms Duffield said she will continue to represent her constituents as an independent MP, “guided by my core Labour values”.