WASHINGTON, D.C.— Dennis Kelleher, Cofounder, President, and CEO, issued the following statement regarding a letter he sent to the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture expressing concerns with provisions in the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act (DCCPA):
“The DCCPA, one of FTX’s and Sam Bankman-Fried’s top legislative priorities prior to their downfall, poses several serious concerns for investors, customers and financial stability, which are outlined in a letter Better Markets sent to the Senate Agriculture Committee. For example, this bill expands the definition of a commodity and narrows the definition of a security, effectively limiting the SEC’s authority and impairing its ability to crack down on crypto crooks. The bill will also allow crypto exchanges to self-certify their products and sell them to retail investors without adequate independent review. Given the industry’s history of breaking or ignoring the securities and commodities laws, this invites more lawbreaking and will, again, impair the SEC’s ability to police the securities markets.
“After fourteen years of promises, there is still no independently validated, legitimate, economically productive use case for crypto. In fact, just the opposite: lawbreaking appears to be the business model with predators, criminals and con-artists ripping off tens of millions of people. The FTX implosion is just one recent example in a long list of high-profile crypto firms going bankrupt and SBF is just the latest to be charged with lawbreaking. Given that, and considering the Committee’s hearing on December 1, 2022, and subsequent reporting that the Committee continues to work on the DCCAP, Better Markets wanted to share its concerns with the Committee as it thinks through the best way to address the ongoing crypto crime wave and carnage.
“However, while thinking about these issues now may be appropriate, a full, complete, and fact-based understanding of what happened at FTX should be known before anything further is done.”
Better Markets’ letter to Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow and Ranking Member John Boozman can be found here.
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Better Markets is a non-profit, non-partisan, and independent organization founded in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to promote the public interest in the financial markets, support the financial reform of Wall Street and make our financial system work for all Americans again. Better Markets works with allies—including many in finance—to promote pro-market, pro-business and pro-growth policies that help build a stronger, safer financial system that protects and promotes Americans’ jobs, savings, retirements and more. To learn more, visit www.bettermarkets.org.
