Crypto Chaos: CFTC’s Pham Declares No Easy Street for Anyone! 🚫💰

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Ah, the Trump administration, with its whimsical dance around crypto, thinks it can pave a golden path for the industry! But hold your horses, folks! Caroline Pham, the acting chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is here to rain on that parade. 🌧️

“There is no easy street for anybody, and regulators aren’t easy,” she quipped to Yahoo Finance at the Coinbase Annual Summit on Thursday. Well, isn’t that a shocker? Who knew regulators could be tough? 😏

“Just because we are pro-innovation and pro-growth does not mean that you’re going to be able to get away with breaking the law.”

And let’s not twist the law, shall we? Pham is not here to criminalize a whole asset class or technology, but she’s definitely calling out the liars, cheaters, and thieves lurking in the shadows. 🕵️‍♀️

She expressed her delight that the CFTC has finally decided to “end the regulation by enforcement” against crypto, focusing instead on “catching fraudsters and scammers in our markets.” Because, you know, that’s what we really need—more fraudsters caught! 🎣

Going beyond the law

Now, Pham didn’t hold back when discussing the Biden administration’s approach to crypto. “They really went beyond what the law says and what the statute says,” she lamented, adding that this approach has also harmed our beloved traditional derivatives and forex markets. Poor things! 😢

“When we start to change the rules for […] global derivatives markets because we’re trying to be creative and ‘flex it’ to go after what we perceive to be bad or evil — crypto or blockchain — that is really breaking the fabric of our global markets.”

Uberizing crypto

In a moment of clarity, Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi asked Pham to elaborate on her intriguing comment about “uberizing crypto.” You know, like how Uber turned the taxi industry upside down! 🚖

Pham explained that it’s about making digital assets so ingrained in our daily lives that banning them becomes politically impossible. “When something becomes so big, so accepted, so part of our lives, you can’t really take it away then. The public, the people, voters, they won’t let you,” she declared. Sounds like a challenge, doesn’t it? 😏

Crypto clarity bill advances

And just when you thought it couldn’t get any more exciting, Pham’s comments coincided with the crypto market structure bill, the CLARITY Act, passing a House Financial Services Committee vote on Tuesday. 🎉

If this bill gets the green light, it will clarify which regulator—Securities and Exchange Commission or the CFTC—will oversee crypto, with more power expected to be handed to the latter. Power struggles, anyone? ⚔️

As for Pham, she plans to move “to the private sector” to make way for a16z crypto policy head Brian Quintez, who will take the helm pending a Senate vote. Because why not shake things up a bit? 🤷‍♀️

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2025-06-13 06:35