WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking on Friday to seek public comment on its intent to establish rules for crypto asset transactions and markets. The agency emphasized that retail customers are at risk of market abuses due to state-level regulatory protections generally being less comprehensive than federal standards. Input on the proposal must be submitted within 60 days of its publication in the Federal Register, the official journal of the U.S. federal government.

Why It Matters

Samuel Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison for orchestrating one of the largest financial frauds in history, stealing over $8 billion of his customers’ money.

Among the cited examples is BitMEX, which permitted customers to trade crypto asset derivatives with leverage as high as 100 to 1. BlockFi agreed to pay $100 million in penalties, split evenly between a $50 million fine to the SEC and $50 million in concurrent state settlements. Voyager Digital was involved in a case where it faced a suspended $1.65 billion judgment over allegations of deceiving consumers into transferring fiat and crypto assets.