CFTC Withdraws 2 Crypto Advisories to Simplify Regulation

On Friday, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) made a decision to withdraw two pieces of crypto-related staff guidance. 

This decision is part of the CFTC’s effort to simplify how it regulates cryptocurrency and make its rules easier to follow. The two pieces of guidance were about crypto-related derivatives, which are financial products based on cryptocurrencies, according to the statement .

The first advisory, Staff Advisory No. 18-14, was introduced in May 2018. It laid out rules for how crypto derivatives should be handled. This included guidelines for firms to work closely with the CFTC’s surveillance group and set a reporting threshold for large traders who own five bitcoins or more. 

However, the CFTC said that this advisory was no longer needed. The reason? The crypto market has grown a lot since then, and there is now more experience in the market, which has made the old rules outdated.

The second advisory, Staff Advisory No. 23-07, was published in May 2023. It focused on the risks of expanding the clearing of digital assets by Digital Clearing Organizations (DCOs). This advisory emphasized the need for firms to follow CFTC regulations because digital assets come with certain risks, like cyber risks. 

But the CFTC also decided to withdraw this advisory to make sure that crypto derivatives are treated fairly, just like other financial products. They didn’t want to give special treatment to crypto products.

The CFTC’s decision is part of a bigger plan under Acting Chair Caroline Pham to simplify the agency’s operations. Pham’s goal is to bring the CFTC “back to basics,” which means focusing on the most important tasks and cutting down on unnecessary rules. 

The CFTC has also made changes to its enforcement division, which now has just two specialized teams instead of many. The goal is to make enforcement more efficient and stop “regulation by enforcement,” meaning they want to avoid creating new rules based on specific cases.

Some experts believe the CFTC’s changes are part of a bigger restructuring of the agency. Liz Davis, a former CFTC attorney, said that the CFTC is probably trying to centralize its operations to improve how it runs.