CFTC Commissioner Kristin Johnson says rules are needed to protect crypto customers’ assets

Leaders of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) say their agency needs to take warnings about cryptocurrencies seriously and are calling for rules to govern the space. Two Democratic CFTC commissioners, Christy Goldsmith Romero and Kristin Johnson, have spent the past week pushing the agency to issue rules or guidance to address conflicts of interest in cryptocurrency and protect consumers. Johnson said at a conference at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta on Monday that the failures of FTX, Binance, Celsius and Voyager demonstrated the need to protect customers by isolating and protecting their deposits. Therefore, the CFTC should "immediately develop regulations regarding asset custody," Johnson said, adding that rules governing cryptocurrencies could be introduced in the coming weeks. "The CFTC has a way to enhance the protection of customer assets through rules that segregate or segregate customer property," Johnson said. "These rules simply say you can't commingle corporate funds and customers' proprietary funds." (The Block)