Speaking at Yahoo Finance’s All Markets Summit in New York in October 2019, Tarbert said, “we've been very clear on bitcoin: bitcoin is a commodity. We haven't said anything about ether—until now. It is my view as chairman of the CFTC that ether is a commodity.”
Hayes, along with the Seychelles-based cryptocurrency derivatives exchange’s co-founders Benjamin Delo, Samuel Reed, and head of business development Gregory Dwyer have been charged with violating the Bank Secrecy Act and conspiring to violate the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to put sufficient anti-money-laundering safeguards in place. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
The goal that will be of most interest to crypto-focused firms is the third one: to encourage innovation and enhance the regulatory experience for market participants at home and abroad. This will undoubtedly be music to the ears of international businesses that have ended up being bogged down with red tape and regulatory uncertainty.
On May 11, TD Ameritrade-backed cryptocurrency derivatives exchange ErisX announced that it now offers physically settled ether futures contracts to both institutional and retail investors.
