U.S. CFTC Chairman Behnam called on crypto industry innovators to protect investors in his farewell speech

PANews reported on January 9 that according to CoinDesk, Rostin Behnam, chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), focused on cryptocurrencies and their regulation in his last public speech before leaving office, and emphasized the need to enhance the CFTC as a cryptocurrency regulator. Behnam will step down on January 20 to make way for future appointees of President-elect Trump. In his speech at the Brookings Institution, he said that cryptocurrencies "run through every stage of my tenure."

Behnam pointed out: "In the absence of federal legislation, customer protection, increased fraud and market abuse, market resilience, and financial stability are becoming increasingly serious. History has repeatedly proved that placing a large amount of financial activities outside of regulation will ultimately lead to bad results." He directly called on industry "innovators" to protect investors who "are eager to include digital assets in their portfolios" and emphasized: "The role of market regulators is crucial. They ensure that financial innovation is integrated into a regulatory and compliance culture that protects consumers and provides legal certainty." He also said that he has never supported a law enforcement-led regulatory approach. In contrast, Gary Gensler, chairman of the US SEC, has long been criticized by the industry for adopting an approach of "replacing regulation with law enforcement."

Earlier today, U.S. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler reiterated that the crypto space is "full of bad actors."