The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is going to hold a meeting on the challenges, opportunities and market developments of cryptocurrencies on January 23, 2018.

The meeting will be held by the CFTC Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) and sponsored by CFTC Commissioner Brian Quintenz.

"Undoubtedly, virtual currency and virtual currency derivatives present both significant opportunities and challenges. As a Federal market regulator, the CFTC is cognizant of the considerable risks of virtual currencies like Bitcoin,” CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo said. “In addition to the nascent stage of the technology itself, risks associated with virtual currencies include: operational risks of unregulated and unsupervised trading platforms; cybersecurity risks of hackable trading platforms and virtual currency wallets; speculative risks of extremely volatile price moves; and fraud and manipulation risks through traditional market abuses of pump and dump schemes, insider trading, false disclosure, Ponzi schemes and other forms of investor fraud and market manipulation.”

In 2014, the CFTC declared that Bitcoin and other virtual currencies are a commodity covered by the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA), Giancarlo noted. Last month, it published a proposed interpretation on its authority over retail commodity transactions involving digital currencies, such as bitcoin. On January 04, 2018, the CFTC released a backgrounder on its oversight of and approach to virtual currency futures markets.

“One thing is certain: ignoring virtual currency trading will not make it go away. Nor is it a responsible regulatory strategy. The CFTC has an important role to play,” Giancarlo said. “The responsible regulatory response to virtual currencies is consumer education, asserting CFTC authority, surveilling trading in derivative and spot markets, prosecuting fraud, abuse, manipulation and false solicitation and active coordination with fellow regulators.”

The CFTC’s Market Risk Advisory Committee (MRAC) will hold a meeting on January 31, 2018, sponsored by CFTC Commissioner Rostin Behnam, to consider the process of self-certification of new products and operational rules by Designated Contract Markets (DCMs) under the CEA and CFTC regulations.