CFTC ‘Pretty Confident’ in Case Against Binance, Says Chairman Rostin Behnam

Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman Rostin Behnam says the regulator is confident in its case against Binance.

In a new interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box, host Becky Quick asks Behnam what the CFTC plans to do about Binance’s alleged long list of regulatory violations.

“As you know, we’re a civil enforcement agency. I think, to your point, this something that has been pretty well known in the crypto circles now, is that not having a headquarters, not having a location is not going to prevent the CFTC from coming after you. In this particular case, there was a clear evasion.

When we looked at the entities as a common enterprise, dozens and dozens of entities scattered across the globe, with control persons up to Mr. Zhao. When you have that situation where you have a control person of a common enterprise, I think there’s a clear potential liability that we saw.

And as you pointed out, clear documentation of an intent to evade the law with a very clear and direct method of saying, ‘This is what we need to do to evade US law so that we can have access to the market.’ So, we feel pretty confident in this case.”

The CFTC chairman says this Binance case is another example of why the US needs clear crypto regulations.

“Obviously, it is something that we care about deeply and that we’ve been on top of for several years in this crypto space. I’ve talked about a lack of authority for the CFTC in the crypto space, and I think this just demonstrates the need for clear rules and also authority so we can avoid situations like this and make sure that we’re creating transparent markets so US customers are not subject to fraud or manipulation.”

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