CFTC Official to Congress: Don't Be 'Hasty' With Crypto Rules

The director of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's fintech initiative cautioned against what he called "Hasty regulatory pronouncements" during a Congressional hearing on Wednesday.

The remarks from Daniel Gorfine, director of LabCFTC, were directed toward members of the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture which, as reported by CoinDesk, sought testimony on the issue of cryptocurrencies and digital assets.

Alongside Gorfine were former JPMorgan blockchain lead Amber Baldet, former CFTC chair Gary Gensler and A16Z managing partner Scott Kupor.

Gorfine framed his remarks from the perspective that many different things can be considered "Commodities" - but not all of them would warrant attention from U.S. regulators.

Gorfine would return to that point several times during the hearing, which began at 10 a.m. local time.

The hearing notably provided a window into what some members of Congress think when it comes to the subject of cryptocurrencies - though it wasn't positive in some cases.

Rep. Collin Peterson remarked that, in his view, much of the cryptocurrency ecosystem "Seems like a Ponzi scheme" and asking "What's behind this?".

In other cases, committee members simply wanted more information on how cryptocurrencies exactly work.

Want to read CoinDesk's full by-the-second coverage of the hearing? Follow our stream on Twitter here.

CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.