CFTC to hold hearing on blockchain

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) will discuss the use of blockchain technology in derivatives markets during a meeting of its Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) later this month.

According to today’s announcement, the hearing will be held on January 26 at the CFTC’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. The entire meeting will be open to the public.

The announcement stated:

“Topics discussed at the TAC will include:

(1) the Commission's proposed regulations regarding automated trading ("Reg AT" );

(2) Exchange data standardization and harmonization;

(3) Possible applications of blockchain and distributed ledger technology in the derivatives market .

The hearing comes months after the CFTC announced it would regulate bitcoin and other digital currencies as commodities.

The last decision was closely related to an enforcement action against a bitcoin options trading platform. The CFTC charged bitcoin trading platform TeraExchange with alleged violations of the Commodity Exchange Act late that month.