CFTC Commissioner: Market Manipulation Could Shape Bitcoin’s Future

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was one of the more vocal US government entities on the subject of bitcoin in 2014, holding a hearing to discuss its role in options and futures, claiming regulatory oversight over the derivatives market and speculating on how it might intervene in the digital currency ecosystem.
Perhaps most notably, however, CFTC Commissioner Mark Wetjen penned an opinion piece heralding the technology’s potential to transform the industries his agency oversees.
But while the CFTC and Wetjen in particular have been open with their views on bitcoin, the organisation as a whole has been less clear on how it will proceed with providing more clarity to bitcoin businesses going forward.
Outstanding questions include how bitcoin fits under existing definitions of commodities, what would inspire the agency to investigate potential market manipulation and how it views activities in the global bitcoin derivatives market.
During a new interview with CoinDesk, Wetjen opened up about these issues and more, although he suggested that the agency itself currently has no way forward on any of these concerns. Rather, it is the bitcoin industry that will decide when and how further action will occur.
Wetjen said:
‘It depends on whether there is anything bitcoin-related for the CFTC to consider. At the moment, there’s nothing before the CFTC itself to decide upon.’

This post was published at Coin Desk on January 8, 2015.