Cryptocurrency may be a threat to America’s national security and more regulation is needed in the space now, Commodities Futures Trading Commission Chair Rostin Behnam said today. Senators on Thursday grilled Behnam on lack of regulation in space at the first congressional oversight hearing following the crash of crypto exchange FTX and the fall of its disgraced founder Sam Bankman-Fried. FTX was one of the biggest and most popular crypto exchanges until it blew up just weeks ago. It is now coming to light how the company’s leadership mismanaged the exchange and its related entities, and was opaque about its books, which led to a remarkably quick bankruptcy—and the loss of billions of dollars worth of customer assets. Behnam said cryptocurrency was “potentially a threat to national security” when Senator Roger Wayne Marshall (R-KS), who described the space as a “nuclear bomb going off,” asked about digital assets being used by criminals. Talking to members of the Senate Agriculture committee, Behnam added that digital assets will exist even if the U.S. government wanted to ban them from U.S. soil—noting that despite regulations and restrictions known as geofencing, 2% of FTX customers were from the U.S. FTX was a Bahamas-based company, and it ostensibly prohibited U.S. residents from using its services.
Read more : CFTC Chair: Crypto ‘Potentially a Threat to National Security’ After FTX Crash.
