The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has published primer on cryptocurrencies. The document was produced by LabCFTC, the section of the CFTC launched to promote responsible Fintech innovation and fair competition. The publication comes at a time when digital currencies have become extremely popular, especially with the advent of Initial Coin Offerings.
Danjel Gorfine, Director of LabCFTC, explained the reason for the release of the document;
“LabCFTC believes that promoting education, understanding, and regulatory clarity around emerging technologies can help facilitate market-enhancing innovation and guard against risks. As people worldwide try to understand and wrap their heads around the virtual currency ecosystem, we thought it timely and important for our first primer to help explain the space, identify how developments involve the CFTC, and highlight risks that investors or users of virtual currencies should carefully consider.”
Gorfine, who is well known in the alternative finance space, also serves as CFTC’s Chief Innovation Officer. Gorfine said they view the release of today’s primer as a meaningful step in advancing that engagement, indicating the CFTC is taking a healthy approach to financial innovation.
So what is in the primer?
A high level overview of where digital coins originated and where we are now. There is also an obligatory cautionary note about the intrinsic risks associated with crypto.
See the document below.
[scribd id=361840512 key=key-UQbVHJDBBmHYvI3bhe5o mode=scroll]
