“As a regulator of markets, as a regulator of commodities, I believe I have both an interest and a responsibility to oversee these [digital asset] markets to protect customers.”

Biography:

Rostin Behnam grew up in New Jersey and worked as an equities trader for some time between attending college at Georgetown University and law school at Syracuse University. He began his career in government in 2011 when he became senior counsel to Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow, who was then the head of the United States Senate Committee on Agriculture. That committee oversees the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which Behnam joined as a commissioner in 2017.

By 2017, the CFTC was already engaged in crypto regulation along with what some would call a “turf war” with the much larger Securities and Exchange Commission. Behnam was deeply immersed in crypto issues from the start. He told the audience at a conference in 2018, “I am surprised by the amount of time I spent examining issues related to Bitcoin, crypto assets, distributed ledger technology (DLT), artificial intelligence, and cloud-based programming.”

Behnam was named acting chairman of the CFTC in January 2021, replacing Heath Tarbert, and was nominated to take the chair permanently later that year. He told a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on his nomination that he wanted the CFTC to be “a primary cop on the beat” for digital assets. The CFTC is sometimes said to be the softer crypto regulator than the SEC. The Senate confirmed Behnam’s nomination in December, and his term expires in 2026.

Behnam’s 2022:

Behnam was sworn in as chairman of the CFTC on Jan. 4. The following month, he testified before the Senate Agriculture Committee that his agency needed more enforcement authority over digital assets — and $100 million to go with it. Behnam and SEC Chair Gary Gensler voiced their positions on their agencies’ authorities throughout the year.

In 2022, 20% of the cases the CFTC handled were crypto-related, it stated in its annual enforcement results report. Some of those cases were initiated before Behnam’s chairmanship. Among others, the cases involved Ooki DAO, Digitex, Gemini, BitMEX, Bitfinex, Tether Holdings, and of course, FTX.

Behnam’s 2023:

The ongoing FTX drama will likely take much of Behnam’s attention in 2023. The CFTC filed suit against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX and Alameda Research for violating the Commodity Exchange Act on Dec. 13, 2022. In the months before FTX’s collapse, Behnam reportedly met with SBF numerous times to discuss financial products that FTX US was proposing.

Some of the other significant events in Behnam’s professional life may take place in Congress — most likely without him even being present. Several bills were introduced to regulate digital assets in 2022, some of which may come up for a vote in 2023. Senator Stabenow is the co-author with Senator John Boozman of the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act, now before Congress — a bill that would significantly extend the CFTC’s authority. Meanwhile, Senator Elizabeth Warren has stated that she is writing a regulatory bill that would favor the SEC.