CFTC Chair Selig said on CNBC that the Binance hack “proves our exact point.” Using someone else’s house fire to sell your own fire extinguishers—I give this marketing campaign full marks.
So what’s the proposal, exactly? Give offshore exchanges the “voluntary” option to register with the CFTC and comply with U.S. cybersecurity standards. The key word is “voluntary.” The comment period doesn’t close until December 14, and making it mandatory would require separate legislation from Congress. An optional measure gets spun by a bunch of accounts as “the U.S. is going after offshore exchanges”—clickbait wins again.
And how did this breach happen? According to what’s been leaked so far, a DevOps engineer’s laptop was compromised. Can a registration certificate protect a compromised computer? Security is an engineering problem, not a paperwork problem.
It’s pretty clear who comes out ahead. U.S.-based compliant exchanges get a free slogan, and regulators get a free boost in influence. Retail investors are left with the same old advice: know where your coins are held and who controls the private keys.
#CFTC #Binance
So what’s the proposal, exactly? Give offshore exchanges the “voluntary” option to register with the CFTC and comply with U.S. cybersecurity standards. The key word is “voluntary.” The comment period doesn’t close until December 14, and making it mandatory would require separate legislation from Congress. An optional measure gets spun by a bunch of accounts as “the U.S. is going after offshore exchanges”—clickbait wins again.
And how did this breach happen? According to what’s been leaked so far, a DevOps engineer’s laptop was compromised. Can a registration certificate protect a compromised computer? Security is an engineering problem, not a paperwork problem.
It’s pretty clear who comes out ahead. U.S.-based compliant exchanges get a free slogan, and regulators get a free boost in influence. Retail investors are left with the same old advice: know where your coins are held and who controls the private keys.
#CFTC #Binance