CFTC
EEMAC Meeting: On June 27, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Energy and Environmental Markets Advisory Committee (EEMAC) held a public meeting.
The meeting covered the state of the metals markets with a specific focus on copper and a discussion exploring wetland mitigation credits and how the CFTC could provide technical assistance in the creation of markets. The main focus of the meeting was the anticipated gap between supply and demand of copper in coming years in response to the energy transition.
CFTC Carbon Meeting: The CFTC announced that it will hold its second meeting on voluntary carbon markets on July 17. Delta Strategy Group will provide coverage of this meeting once it happens.
Event Contracts: The CFTC announced that it has commenced a review of event contracts self-certified by Kalshi. The CFTC has 90 days to decide on whether it will allow the contracts. Both Republican Commissioners, Caroline Pham and Summer Mersinger, dissented from the decision.
The Hill
House Ag Hearing: On June 6, the House Ag Committee held a hearing entitled “The Future of Digital Assets: Providing Clarity for Digital Asset Spot Markets.” The hearing had two panels. In the first panel, the witness was CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam. In the second panel, the witnesses were former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal, Robinhood Chief Legal Compliance Officer Dan Gallagher, former CFTC Commissioner Dan Berkovitz, and President and CEO of FIA Walt Lukken.
The hearing focused on recent digital asset legislation introduced jointly by the House Financial Services and House Ag Committees. Chairman Behnam said that he supports the core elements of the bill, but he voiced concerns over the lack of additional CFTC funding in the bill and the structure of the provisional registration section of the bill.
HFSC Hearing: On June 13, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing entitled “The Future of Digital Assets: Providing Clarity for the Digital Asset Ecosystem.” The witnesses in the hearing were President and CEO of NFA Tom Sexton, CEO of Ava Labs Emin Sirer, Partner at Steptoe & Johnson Coy Garrison, CEO of Circle Jeremy Allaire, and Co-CEO of Prometheum Aaron Kaplan.
The hearing focused on recent digital asset legislation introduced jointly by the House Financial Services and House Ag Committees. Republicans in the hearing voiced broad support for the bill, but the minority witness from Prometheum advocated for maintaining the status quo for digital asset legislation. Some Democrats in the hearing such as Reps. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) and Brad Sherman (D-CA) said that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should be the primary regulator of digital assets.
HFSC Hearing: On June 21, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing entitled “The Federal Reserve’s Semi-Annual Monetary Policy Report.” The sole witness in the hearing was Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell.
The hearing primarily focused on proposals for new bank capital requirements and the Fed’s recent pause on interest rate hikes. Chairman Powell said that any increases in capital requirements would be closely considered and tailored to ensure that they are only as high as necessary. Powell said that these requirements would be primarily targeted at only the largest banks and would likely not have an impact on the cost or availability of credit in the near-term.
Senate Banking Hearing: On June 22, the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing entitled “The Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress.” The sole witness in the hearing was Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.
Powell said that, despite the recent pause in interest rate hikes, the Federal open Markets Committee (FOMC) fully expects there to be one or two more rate hikes this year. Despite criticism for raising rates, Powell said that the only path to reduce inflation and ensure price stability is by raising interest rates, and, while that can be painful, it gradually slows down demand so that supply and demand can be aligned.
HFSC Hearing: On June 22, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing entitled “Oversight of the SEC.” The sole witness in the hearing was Megan Barbero, General Counsel of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Republicans in the Subcommittee criticized the SEC for its lack of responsiveness to Committee inquiries, saying that this problem has been unique to the time that SEC Chairman Gary Gensler led the Commission. Democrats in the Subcommittee said that Republicans were overreaching with onerous requests to the SEC, and the Republicans should not attempt to micromanage a regulator trying to protect individual investors.
HFSC Hearing: On June 22, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing entitled “Oversight of the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets.” Witnesses in the hearing were the SEC’s Trading and Markets Director Haoxing Zhu and Chief Economist Jessica Wachter.
Republicans in the Committee were critical of the SEC for the pace and breadth of rulemakings that have come from the Commission under SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. The hearing focused primarily on the SEC’s recent proposals for equity market structure. Committee members questioned whether the SEC has adequately studied the way that proposals will interact with each other, and whether the SEC should stagger the implementation of the rules to consider their market impact on an ongoing basis. The hearing also featured discussions on SEC proposals for Treasury market dealer registration, custody of assets, and climate change disclosures.
SEC
Security-Based Swap Position Rule: On June 20, the SEC reopened the comment period for position reporting of large security-based swap positions. The rule was originally proposed on February 4, 2022, and it is now extended until August 21, 2023. The rule would require any person with a security-based swap position over a certain threshold to file certain information with the SEC.
Crypto Enforcement: The SEC filed charges against Binance and Coinbase for operating as unregistered securities exchanges. Coinbase has adamantly disputed the charges and claims that the SEC has expanded its definition of what constitutes a security beyond Congressional intent.
FinTech
Here is a summary of policy updates in the digital asset/blockchain space. The summary includes regulatory and legislative developments in the U.S.