Chairman of the U.S. CFTC: Cryptocurrency legislation will require six to ten months, and subsequent rule-making by federal agencies will take a year

The outgoing chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Rostin Behnam, has once again called on Congress to fill the gap in cryptocurrency regulation. He said that even if he no longer serves as chairman, he will continue to advocate for the CFTC to advance this initiative.

When a Wall Street Journal reporter later asked about the situation in the new year, Behnam stated that cryptocurrency legislation takes time and mentioned the new composition of the presidential administration and Congress.

Behnam pointed out that legislation would take six to ten months, and subsequent rule-making by federal agencies would require a year.

Behnam said: "I do believe that acting heads will change regulatory approaches from day one. Current committee members have been talking about sandboxes and creating environments where cryptocurrency participants can basically conduct business without worrying about enforcement or regulation because it's a controlled environment." He added that legislative efforts made by lawmakers including Debbie Stabenow and Patrick McHenry are "not perfect," but still good initiatives. "I think our current situation is such that existing regulations cannot solve problems."