CFTC Clears Path for Commodities Firms to Invest in Tokenized Assets
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has updated its FAQs on crypto assets and blockchain technology to allow commodities firms to invest customer funds in tokenized forms of approved investments.
The update, which came from the CFTC's Market Participants Division, Division of Market Oversight, and Division of Clearing and Risk working jointly, addresses two distinct questions that had left registrants without clear guidance.
According to the agency's press release, the first change permits customer fund investments in tokenized forms of investments the CFTC has already approved in their traditional form. This means a firm does not need separate case-by-case approval simply because the underlying asset is represented as a token rather than held in its conventional form.
The second change allows blockchain technology to fulfill registrant recordkeeping obligations, giving firms a regulator-sanctioned path to use distributed ledger records instead of traditional recordkeeping systems.