The CFTC chairperson focused on cryptocurrencies in his speech before leaving office, emphasizing the need for the CFTC to serve as its regulator

Rostin Behnam, chairperson of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), will step down as chairperson on January 20 to make way for future appointees to President-elect Donald Trump. In his final public speech at the Brookings Institution this week, he devoted much of his talk to cryptocurrencies and the need to elevate the CFTC as its regulator.
Mr. Behnam said cryptocurrencies had "dominated every period of my tenure", saying: "Concerns about customer protection, increased fraud and market abuse, broader market resiliency and even financial stability are rising because of the lack of federal legislation, which we have seen historically, where we have left a large number of financial operations out of oversight and accountability, and we have seen time and time again that the end result has been bad." He also urged the protection of investors "eager to include digital asset products in their portfolios".