U.S. lawmakers from both parties are introducing a bill that would give the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) a greater role in overseeing the cryptocurrency spot market. The Digital Commodities Exchange Act of 2022 (DCEA), introduced Thursday by Glenn Thompson, Ro Khanna, Tom Emmer and Darren Soto, would create a definition of digital goods that would allow the CFTC to oversee the issuance or allow people to trade these types of tokens. companies, while letting the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continue to oversee tokens that fall under U.S. securities laws.
A copy of the bill shows that the term digital good refers to any form of interchangeable intangible personal property that can be owned exclusively by and transferred to an individual without necessarily relying on an intermediary.
This definition will not include any equity or debt interests, or securities. In other words, the SEC will continue to have its own oversight over all aspects of the cryptocurrency market. Under the act, these digital goods can only be sold on CFTC-registered exchanges, which must comply with certain requirements, including depositing customers’ cryptocurrencies with qualified custodians, protecting customer assets, and preventing customer and company funds mix.