Crypto and bitcoin have problems the CFTC and SEC can't fix

The crypto industry is still smarting over the millions it spent lobbying to get its preferred legislation enacted only to have it die on the Senate floor. But all is not lost.

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The Commodities Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission are focused on doing the important work of making sure crypto assets are available to any mom or pop who wants to make highly leveraged bets on the most speculative asset class on the planet. Because prediction markets don't offer enough excitement. Scratch that. Not excitement, investment.

The CFTC on Monday proposed new rules to cover leveraged crypto trading and opened them up to public comment, our Maria Volkova reported. The federal agency's chair, Michael Selig, says it has the authority to issue regulations covering crypto trading and to establish a federal framework for it, which makes one wonder why Congress is therefore needed at all. 

This is the same agency that was just sued by the Independent Community Banker Association for, allegedly, overstepping its statutory authority, so exactly what the boundaries are for the CFTC and whether the CFTC should be allowed to draw them itself is open to interpretation.