WASHINGTON—The nation’s top derivatives regulator is testifying Wednesday about cryptocurrencies before a congressional panel that is weighing the need for new legislation to bring the volatile asset class under government oversight.
Rostin Behnam,
the recently confirmed chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is appearing before the Senate Agriculture Committee for a hearing examining risks, regulation and innovation in the cryptocurrency industry. Additional witnesses include billionaire cryptocurrency entrepreneur
Sam Bankman-Fried.
Regulators in the Biden administration have likened the $1.7 trillion cryptocurrency market to the Wild West and said it lacks the safeguards that protect investors in stocks, bonds or commodities. But they have struggled to…