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Rostin Behnam, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is speaking at DC Fintech Week in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday morning.
The agency is in a critical period: The CFTC sought to block financial exchange Kalshi from offering contracts that allow people to bet on the outcomes of U.S. elections. The agency lost that suit in September, and an appeals court lifted a temporary injunction that barred Kalshi from offering contracts bidding on elections.
The CFTC is appealing the ruling.
“The position of the commission has actually been pretty consistent for the better part of a decade, that we don’t believe listing event contracts on political elections is legal,” Behnam said in a Bloomberg Television interview Tuesday. “But while we have this ongoing legal challenge, we’ll allow them and we’re going to do what we can to protect the integrity of the markets.”
The CFTC has also been grappling with the rapid evolution of digital assets and the need for Congress to take the first steps toward establishing a regulatory framework to ensure consumer protections.
“What has concerned me most throughout the expansion of this digital asset class is that while everyday Americans fall victim to one digital asset scam after another, there remains no completed legislative response,” he said July in testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.
“Federal legislation is urgently needed to create a pathway for a regulatory framework that will protect American investors and possibly the financial system from future risk,” he added.