Share this article
CFTC Chief Asks Congress for More Money to Oversee Blockchain
The CFTC has cited the advance of technologies like blockchain in a request to obtain additional funding for its oversight activities.
By Stan Higgins
Updated Sep 11, 2021, 1:29 p.m. Published Jun 28, 2017, 3:30 p.m.
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has cited the advance of technologies like blockchain in a request to obtain additional funding for oversight activities.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
from acting CFTC chairman J Christopher Giancarlo reveals that the agency – which oversees the sale and trade of commodity derivatives in the US – wants an additional $31.5m in funding (for a total of $281.5m for fiscal year 2018) to help support its market surveillance work in an era of rapid technological change. Giancarlo's request was sent to the US Senate Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.
Among those technologies is blockchain, about which Giancarlo has struck a broadly optimistic note in the past. In a CoinDesk op-ed from December, he wrote that he believes "in its promising benefits for the financial marketplace and financial regulators".
That said, according to his testimony, the tech is likely to create new issues for regulators.
Giancarlo told the subcommittee:
"Other breaking digital innovations present equal regulatory challenges....[like] distributed ledger technology, more commonly known as blockchain, that will challenge orthodoxies that are foundational to today’s financial market infrastructure."
The CFTC isn't the only agency pointing to the impact of blockchain as part of its requests for federal funding.
Last week, CoinDesk reported that the FBI has requested $21m in additional funds to support investigations involving emerging technologies like digital currencies.
Image by Michael del Castillo for CoinDesk
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
Plus pour vous
Coinbase Sees Crypto Recovery Ahead as Liquidity Improves and Fed Rate Cut Odds Climb
The crypto exchange also took note of a so-called AI bubble that continues to go strong and a weaker U.S. dollar.
Ce qu'il:
- Coinbase Institutional is seeing a potential December recovery in crypto, citing improving liquidity and a shift in macroeconomic conditions that could favor risk assets like bitcoin.
- The firm's optimism is driven by rising odds of Federal Reserve rate cuts, with markets pricing in a 93% chance easing next week, and improving liquidity conditions.
- Several recent institutional developments, including Vanguard's crypto ETF policy reversal and Bank of America's greenlighting of crypto allocations, have contributed to bitcoin's rebound from recent lows.
Top Stories
