Public Statements & Remarks

Keynote Address of Chairman Rostin Behnam

January 08, 2025

Introduction 

Thank you for inviting me to speak with you this morning.  Today will be my last official remarks as the CFTC’s 15th Chairman.

It is too early to fully process and articulate in a salient way what the last seven years have meant for me.  I can say, without hesitation, that I approached every part of my job with the utmost focus and care.

I have always prioritized, above all else, our mission critical oversight and enforcement duties aimed at protecting customers and supporting reliable and resilient markets.  Within our largely static budget, I have insisted that we build our expertise and supported necessary investments in technology, infrastructure, and employee upskilling so that we can continue to proficiently fulfill our responsibilities consistent with what the markets have become accustomed to.

Throughout my tenure, I believe the CFTC has delivered an undeniable record of using regulation, innovation, and domestic and international collaboration to ensure our markets function well, serve risk management and transparency needs, and provide fertile ground for modernization and opportunity to pursue economic interests.  Even on contentious issues, we consistently acted in good faith in interpreting and respecting the statutory boundaries of our authority.

Perhaps unlike any era before, the Commission put its internal checks and balances process on full display.  Our frequent bipartisanship ensured that even when consensus remained out of reach, our decision-making provided a transparent and accurate record for public comment—and if ever warranted, judicial review.

In many ways, I sense that on the eve of its 50th anniversary, the CFTC will go from golden right on to platinum while continuing to lead globally. It’s exciting.  It makes it a bit tough to walk away.  But, then again, as I have said before, the derivatives industry is marked by—and thrives on the precipice of--transformative change.[1]

By design, the exchange traded and cleared derivatives market structure has proven not only resilient, but a beacon through challenging times.  In 2010, the derivatives model provided a path forward from crisis and served as the blueprint for swaps market reform. More than a decade later, treasury futures clearing is following suit.  Looking back, the almost 15 years of organic growth in the historic markets, the introduction of new products, including the digital commodity asset class, and the significant expansion of market participants—both institutional and retail—through technological innovation, have not been met with calls for wholesale or even moderate regulatory reform.  Rather, ongoing success has been achieved by those who recognized that we are stewards charged with building on solid foundations and not laying waste to what was never broken.

With that in mind, as Chairman, I have made it my priority to always adjust the CFTC’s regulatory and enforcement initiatives to meet the matter at hand.  With input from a vibrant stakeholder community, we worked towards defining breakthroughs and addressing breaks with openness to innovation and cautious due diligence.

In my seven years alone, we’ve moved through a pandemic, weathered wars, made it through market disruptions, realized a technological revolution, welcomed in the rise of climate finance, migrated to the cloud, broken ground with DeFi and disintermediation, managed multiple crypto cycles, surfaced scandals, and exercised agency and opportunity towards improving governance, margin and clearing, cybersecurity, customer protections, operational resilience and more.  We’ve accomplished a lot; and there is still so much to do—there is always more to do.

I am going to resist the urge to reminisce.  However, I want to take a moment to acknowledge and reflect on the issues and accomplishments that I believe benchmarked my time at the Commission and will continue their own trajectory in the years to come.

Cue the Slide Show

We Have an Advisory Committee for That

One of my earliest efforts as sponsor of the CFTC’s Market Risk Advisory Committee (MRAC) focused on interest rate benchmark reform.  Encouraged by the broad market participation in global cooperative and consultative efforts towards successfully transitioning away from LIBOR,[2] the MRAC contributed through the work of its Interest Rate Benchmark Reform Subcommittee, which promoted LIBOR transition through various initiatives including SOFR First.[3]  During my Chairmanship, the Commission issued a final rule regarding the mandatory clearing of SOFR swaps.[4]  Emphasizing our message of support and coordination, CFTC staff issued a joint statement advising of the importance of ensuring a smooth and timely transition away from LIBOR.[5]  September 30, 2024, marked the end of LIBOR world-wide with the final publication of the remaining synthetic LIBOR settings.  The successful transition away from LIBOR has resulted in safer, more stable, and resilient financial markets.

The MRAC Climate-Related Market Risk Subcommittee released the September 2020 report Managing Climate Risk in the U.S. Financial System (the “Climate Risk Report”),[6] the first of-its-kind effort from a U.S. government entity.  Among the 53 recommendations to mitigate risks to financial markets posed by climate change, the Climate Risk Report identified pricing carbon as a fundamental element for financial markets to efficiently allocate capital to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. [7]

Encouraged by the tremendous support for the Climate Risk Report, and cognizant that the CFTC’s focus on risk mitigation and price discovery put us on the front lines of the nexus between financial markets and decarbonization efforts, I established the CFTC’s Climate Risk Unit shortly after becoming Chairman,[8] and hosted two Voluntary Carbon Markets Convenings in June 2022 and July 2023. [9]  These efforts kickstarted the Commission’s understanding of the potential role of the official sector as we began to see the listing of futures products referencing underlying voluntary carbon credits (VCCs).  Our takeaway from these public engagement and consultative efforts was that the Commission should act, consistent with its statutory authority, and the CFTC issued a Request for Information on Climate-Related Financial Risk.[10]

Later that year, COP28 set an international stage for me to introduce the Commission’s proposed guidance regarding the listing of VCC derivative contracts.[11]  Identified as one of the most important developments for the carbon industry,[12] it was the world’s first proposed guidance on standards applicable to exchanges listing products aimed at providing tools to manage risk, promote price discovery, and help channel capital in support of decarbonization efforts.[13]  We were not, however, out on a limb.  Our initial step as a market regulator complemented important work underway by IOSCO (International Organization of Securities Commissions), where I have served as a Vice Chair since 2022, through its Sustainable Finance Task Force’s Carbon Market Workstream.  The Workstream near-simultaneously launched a consultation on standards for VCCs focused on how regulators can promote sound market structure and enhance financial integrity in the voluntary carbon markets. [14]

The Commission finalized Guidance Regarding the Listing of Voluntary Carbon Credit Derivative Contracts in September 2024.[15]  This action directly addresses the barriers to legitimacy that have plagued progress towards sustainable, scalable VCMs in a targeted, responsive manner.  By outlining characteristics embedded in statutory core principles and associated regulations relevant to transparent, reliable, and standard product listing and design, the CFTC’s oversight ensures that upon delivery, the quality and other attributes of the carbon credits underlying a listed CFTC contract will meet the expectations of the position holder and converge with a price that reflects the true risk.  This, in turn, can support the accurate pricing of carbon, reduce the susceptibility of listed contracts to fraud and manipulation, and foster confidence in the contract—all of which can enhance liquidity.

While there are some who may believe that we are moving forward on a solution for a problem that remains nascent, it may in fact be a matter of the age-old adage regarding which came first, the chicken or the egg?

I have spent the last five years ensuring that, as a market regulator, the CFTC supports—and does not drive or direct in any way—the natural evolution of market-based solutions to managing climate-related risk.  Our role is not to generate optimism or false alarmism.  Our role is to ensure financial integrity, promote innovation, and foster market evolution, including in the voluntary carbon markets.

Recognizing the historical roots of the CFTC and the continued importance of derivatives to agricultural stakeholders, I was pleased as Chairman to sponsor the Agricultural Advisory Committee (AAC).  My sponsorship coincided with what I have often likened to a perfect storm of externalities impacting our commodity markets, putting livestock and grain markets, in particular, under historically intense stresses.[16]  Our timely topics of discussion focused on the impacts of geopolitics, extreme weather events in the U.S. and across the globe, the agricultural value chain, maritime issues, data and analytics, and market and contract structure and design, to name a few.  I am proud to have contributed directly on issues that impact the communities whose reliance on the derivatives markets for price stability and predictability underscores our mission and provides the historical basis for our establishment.

Digging in on Digital Assets and the Innovative Approaches

Another early endeavor that has dominated every season of my tenure is addressing the gap in regulation of the cash markets for crypto or digital asset commodities.  I have repeated myself often and at every opportunity.  My position has not changed, and I will continue to advocate for the CFTC to fill this gap if Congress so chooses—even after I have moved on.[17]

Since the first bitcoin futures contracts and binary options self-certified in 2017,[18] I have urged for greater action to provide legal certainty with respect to rapidly developing FinTech products like cryptocurrencies.[19]  The deep contemplation regarding a greater FinTech agenda paralyzed the nation in the early years and led me to advocate for the White House to push us past the inertia and organize a coordinated effort as it had done at prior technological inflection points.[20]

I was pleased when President Biden led the way in 2022 through his Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets,[21] and more invigorated when the FSOC (Financial Stability Oversight Council) identified the regulatory gap in the spot-markets for crypto-assets that are not securities as a major finding in its 2022 report.[22]

There have been a few targeted efforts, but overall, the digital asset market has continued to integrate into traditional financial institutions without comprehensive regulatory guardrails.  Concerns regarding customer protections, increasing instances of fraud and market abuse, broader market resiliency, and even financial stability are intensifying in the absence of federal legislation. We’ve seen this before in our history where we leave large swaths of finance outside of oversight and responsibility, and we have seen time and time again that it ends badly.

American investors, small and large, have demonstrated eagerness to incorporate digital asset products into their portfolios.  It is our duty to ensure that when they do so, the full protections afforded by our regulatory oversight are in place, and that illegal and illicit conduct is swiftly addressed.

And to the innovators out there, I say as I did in 2018:  “FinTech fits within the principles of financial regulation aimed at ensuring the safety and soundness of individual firms and addressing risk to the larger system while incentivizing innovation, participation, and inclusion.”[23]  My call was never for the law to grow exponentially, nor was it to allow for the regulatory FinTech agenda to be enforcement driven.[24]  I believed then, and I most certainly know now, that market regulators serve an essential role by ensuring financial innovations are socialized into a culture of regulation and compliance that protects consumers and provides legal certainty.

For the CFTC, whose role is yet to be determined, the crypto era has highlighted the need for our ruleset to address the derivatives industry’s current course.  As more entities seek to move away from the traditional and familiar models, which have evolved over decades and withstood countless shocks, towards structures that combine unique activities around increasingly novel products, new questions arise.  Issues regarding vertical integration, disintermediation, and decentralization raise important questions about conflicts of interest, the strength of capital, margin, and segregation requirements, the role and responsibilities of self-regulatory organizations, affiliate risk management, and, of course, customer protections.

While all of this has put the CFTC in the crosshairs between the traditional incumbents and the upstarts as we engage through the CFTC’s advisory committees, rulemakings, roundtables, and requests for information and comments, I continue to caution that there is nothing per se unreasonable or problematic about innovative approaches.  The bottom line is that, when presented with legally sound proposals to facilitate the transfer and mitigation of financial risk, we have a legal duty to proceed with integrity and purpose.  Informed by facts, circumstances, and the law, and nothing else, the CFTC continually pivots in evaluating the products and proposals presented for our consideration, but always within the core and regulatory principles that prioritize, among other things, customer protections, market stability, and resilience.

Data Driven and Owning the Road

Building confidence, supporting integrity, promoting innovation, and fostering evolution all comes down to data.  Indeed, the single most important lesson we learned during the financial crisis, and the foundational premises of the Dodd-Frank Act is that markets are interconnected.  The common language, the ties that bind the participants, practices, and practicalities to all we endeavor to achieve, is data.

In November of 2023, I delivered remarks at the U.S. Treasury Market Conference that focused on the none too flashy, but very foundational progress the CFTC has made towards achieving data transparency and risk mitigation goals post-crisis.[25]  Using marathon metaphors, I paced the audience through the years-long course we have run in allocating resources, ensuring we engaged a multilateral approach on the international arena, and implementing cyber and other safety measures.

Focusing on my time as Chairman, the Division of Data (DOD) was a relatively new division that had been created from the CFTC’s IT department and parts of the Division of Market Oversight.  DOD had a couple dozen talented and hardworking staff, but with Dodd-Frank priorities wrapping up and a host of new opportunities, it lacked a strong vision to leverage its capabilities to benefit the agency’s data analytics functionalities.  Since the Treasury Market speech, we made several strategic DOD leadership hires to ignite the potential of the agency’s analytics capabilities for years to come.

Soon after I brought in a new Chief Data Officer and DOD Director, we hired the CFTC’s first Chief Data Scientist, who leads the development of new analytics services and tools for use across the agency. [26] The Chief Data Scientist’s duties include upskilling staff to enhance their analytics and AI (artificial intelligence) capabilities.  In the past year, 300 of our approximately 700 employees have taken a data science, programming or cloud-based tools training.

With the designation of the CFTC’s first Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer[27] came DOD’s launch of its first annual strategic data and AI action plan aimed at: strengthening data governance and quality; developing and deploying sophisticated enterprise analytics and AI capabilities; modernizing and streamlining tools and technologies; and promoting a data-informed workforce.  The strategic plan is supported by our enhanced, increasingly cloud-based infrastructure.  This gamechanger allows us to develop enterprise dashboards for entity-level risk analysis and modeling, market activity and liquidity analysis, and surveillance analysis and operate the CFTC data hub, a centralized data cataloging tool.

We are laying the foundation for a sophisticated analytics program that staff from across the agency can leverage to inform policy, contribute to ongoing oversight, and enhance enforcement capabilities.  This work is targeting all the typical data pain-points and optimizing opportunities along the data lifecycle.

The AI vision I spoke about in 2023 is well on its way to realization.[28]  Last month, CFTC staff issued an advisory on the use of AI by CFTC registered entities and registrants. [29]  The advisory followed a months-long effort by the staff AI task force that I created to engage with market participants, AI technology providers, domestic and international regulators, and other stakeholders to understand existing and potential AI uses cases and risks in the derivatives markets.[30]

The advisory promotes the CFTC’s technology-neutral approach and encourages a continued dialogue about the risks and benefits of AI use cases in the derivatives markets,[31] and complements the internal transformation underway at the agency to build a forward-looking AI culture.  From strategic hiring and implementing an enterprise-wide strategy aimed at leveraging all our resources, the CFTC is optimizing tools and capabilities across the workforce to better monitor risk, surveil for market integrity, examine for compliance, and enforce to deter unlawful trading behavior in our markets.

Regulatory Agenda

When I took on the role of Chairman, I committed to prioritizing market resilience and stability and protecting the public from fraud and abuse.  I resisted calls for action rooted in short-termism that could place our markets at risk.[32]

Turning to the more routine, business-as-usual agency duties, in early 2023, I outlined a Commission agenda for 2023-2024 to consider and vote on roughly 30 regulatory and policy matters in addition to any outstanding proposals from the prior year.[33]  I bucketed the agenda into themes: enhancing risk management and resilience; strengthening customer protections; promoting efficiency and innovation; improving reporting and data policy; addressing duplicative regulatory requirements, and amplifying international comity.  The themes reflected over a decade of testing the fitness of the post-crisis reforms as punctuated by the recent perfect storm that culminated in branding 2022 as a historically challenging year across all commodity complexes.  There was some more fine tuning to do, and certainly we needed to address several of the stopgap measures in place that fell short of providing the binding assurance of Commission action.  And then there were a few issues that had emerged amid the storm clouds and innovative flares that required us to consider the need for regulatory intervention.

With every action, I carefully considered our current trajectory and the agency’s history, both recent history and history farther out the curve, closer to our initial years as an independent agency.  There is always the outward pressure to go, go, go and push an agenda and leave your legacy.  But, when you are entrusted to Chair an agency, it is your duty to stay within the lines.  You must ensure that when the Commission acts, we do so purposefully as careful stewards of our resources, and with total commitment to fulfilling the agency’s mission, nothing else.

I am pleased with the progress we made. Along the way, we built coalitions, often brought transparency to whole new levels, ensured that we were surgical and targeted in our choices, and though there was always room for interpretation, determined outcomes within the boundaries of the Commodity Exchange Act that were informed by facts and circumstances, nothing else.  We respected core and regulatory principles.  We respected the law.  We prioritized customer protections, market stability and resilience, and ensured a level playing field.

I cannot say enough about my appreciation for the tireless efforts and expertise put forth by the Divisions of Market Oversight and Clearing and Risk, the Market Participants Division, and the Offices of the Chief Economist and General Counsel towards realizing the purpose and intent of the agenda I put forth nearly two years ago.  Every item requires knowledge and input from subject matter experts, data analysts and economists, procedural and general attorneys, stewards to engage with stakeholders and shepherd the entire process internally and externally, and of course, leaders who guide staff and ensure our Commission members have the information they need to evaluate proposed and final actions.  In many ways, regulation and policymaking is perhaps the ultimate test of endurance-based teambuilding.

In all, we completed roughly two-thirds of the initial items on my list, and made significant progress on the rest that should provide a strong foundation for future completion.  I don’t think any Chairman or commissioner ever has the time and the tailwinds to complete all their endeavors, and indeed, is it in our nature as stewards to leave some business unfinished for our successors.  Looking over the dozens of rules, orders, requests for comment, staff letters, and guidance, I believe we addressed the issues of our day informed by the opinions of our full commission.  We did so in short order over a time horizon that featured monumental shifts in the legal interpretation and public perception of regulatory agencies and an influx of innovators and concepts that engaged our time and resources.

Enforcement

No remarks about the CFTC can be complete without a discussion of our enforcement program.  We accomplish our mission through a three-pillar system of effective self-regulation, direct oversight, and a strong enforcement program.

In my earliest days as an Investigator within the N.J. Attorney General’s Bureau of Securities, I recognized the anchoring power of an effective enforcement program.  It is more than having boots on the ground or a cop on the beat.  It is through our enforcement efforts that any regulator demonstrates its commitment to a culture of compliance and protects the foundations and public it serves.

We are all prescribed our respective jurisdictions.  It is our enforcers who stride what at times can be a razor thin boundary.  Enforcement attorneys must not only be well versed in the law and the myriad ways one can maneuver on either side, but they must operate as part of the larger civil enforcement complex and be able to work with their criminal counterparts to ensure that where misconduct straddles their respective remits, justice is completely and faithfully pursued.

I had the distinct privilege on two occasions during my Chairmanship to stand alongside the U.S. Attorney General in announcing groundbreaking globally significant enforcement matters rooted in violations of the Commodity Exchange Act.  The first involved manipulative and deceptive conduct—including conduct relating to foreign corruption—that undermined the integrity of U.S. and global physical and derivatives oil markets.[34]  The second resolved charges against the world’s largest digital asset exchange for illegally operating over a span of nearly four years.[35] These matters were resolved through settlement.

Early in my CFTC tenure, I shared my philosophy on enforcement and the relationships between the regulator and the regulated.[36]  Highlighting recent enforcement trends, I focused on the need to check in on one another, to build trust, and to work on relationships.  Cooperation and transparency would be key to ensuring that when newcomers enter the derivatives markets, we bring them into the regulatory fold and the community.  I was cautious because there were risks that the increasingly automated environment may be providing a false sense of supervision and monitoring for risky behaviors. We needed to engage directly and work towards building regulatory structures that would absorb and buffer, limit and not amplify mistakes, reckless behaviors, and outright misconduct, with enforcement as the consequence and not the instigator.[37]

My philosophy remains the same, and I am constantly reminded that as a regulator of the derivatives industry, relationships, cooperation, and coordination remain our highest priorities.  And though some may disagree, I believe that our enforcement program executes its mission with utmost commitment towards holding individuals and institutions accountable, deterring bad actors, and promoting confidence in U.S. derivatives markets, which continue to be the premier mechanism for global price discovery and risk management.

Measuring the success of an enforcement program is challenging.  And as much as I believe reducing enforcement to a numbers game diminishes its value proposition, since before I took my oath back in 2017, the CFTC has annually reported its fiscal year results and narratives as a tangible representation of how our various oversight and surveillance, investigative, analytic, cooperative, and interpretive programs work together.

Looking back through my tenure as Chairman, including my acting role in 2021, the numbers are ever impressive.  From FY2021 through FY2024, we filed 291 matters, levied over $7.5 billion in civil monetary penalties, and ordered almost $17.5 billion in restitution and disgorgement.  Over the years, we have certainly seen that while digital asset related cases are rightfully demanding significant attention,[38] the Division of Enforcement (DOE) is ensuring that we take necessary action in all our directly regulated markets and in the retail fraud space involving precious metals and forex (foreign exchange).  Looking at the matters that have stood out these last four fiscal years, several in the agricultural, energy, and financial sectors exemplify our unwavering commitment to ensuring that registrants meet their regulatory obligations, that customers receive the protections they deserve, that our markets remain free from manipulation and fraud, and that misconduct in the digital asset space that falls within our jurisdiction receives swift attention.[39]

I am proud of DOE’s work via networking and partnerships through cooperative enforcement efforts with other civil and criminal agencies domestically and internationally and through the creation of task forces to dynamically target evolving threats.  In FY2023, DOE established two new task forces addressing cybersecurity issues and concerns related to emerging technologies including AI, and addressing environmental fraud and misconduct in derivatives and relevant spot markets.[40]  These efforts augment the work of seven additional DOE task forces that focus on the following substantive areas:  Spoofing and Manipulative Trading, Digital Assets, Insider Trading and Protection of Confidential Information, Bank Secrecy Act, Swaps, Foreign Corruption, and Romance Scams.

Bringing bad actors to justice not only maintains the integrity of our markets, but our orders provide transparency by helping to identify potential structural market weaknesses, clearly articulating when conduct may cross the line, alerting the public to emerging scams, and informing our Office of Customer Education and Outreach (OCEO) and Whistleblower Office to areas of growing concern.  One of our greatest efforts this past year has been addressing a type of financial grooming fraud or romance scam widely referred to as “Pig Butchering.”  The rather crude monicker describes the way fraudsters cultivate a friendly or romantic relationship with a potential customer, and "fatten" them up with falsehoods, before soliciting the customer to participate in a fraudulent financial opportunity that generally involves a digital asset.

The CFTC brought its first case involving this type of relationship investment scam in June of 2023.[41]  And last summer, the OCEO, working with the CFTC’s Office of Technology Innovation, DOE, and the Department of Justice’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Sections National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team convened the first ever Fraud Disruption Conference convening over 300 federal regulators and law enforcement officials from more than 15 federal agencies aimed at developing measurable strategies to prevent victimization, use technology to disrupt the fraud, and collaborate on enforcement efforts.[42]

There has been much discussion on the future of enforcement by federal financial regulatory agencies.[43]  I do not believe allegations about regulation by enforcement, unsupported scrutiny, or deterring innovation, among other things, are supportable when it comes to the CFTC.

As I have mentioned before, commenters may struggle in parsing between Commission rulemakings, policy determinations, and the straightforward exercise of its authorities particularly when it comes to matters that involve enforcement, digital and other emerging asset classes, or both.[44]  Media stories and postings, in part, are fed by inaccurate narratives illustrative of what I have come to believe is an overt hyperfocus on the sensational over the less than attention-grabbing substance of an industry regulator engaging in the business-as-usual meeting of our statutory directives.[45]  And I get it, because it is challenging to identify and appreciate where the necessary and appropriate friction resides in a principles-based regime like ours. There is flexibility, but there are boundaries, and understanding where the lines are drawn requires a willingness and the follow through to engage.

As I have said throughout my tenure at the Commission, “[t]he best principles-based rules in the world will not succeed absent:  (1) clear guidance from regulators; (2) adequate means to measure and ensure compliance; and (3) willingness to enforce compliance and punish those who fail to ensure compliance with the rules.”[46]  As Chairman, I kept to my word and did not put forth a proposal, policy, practice, procedure, or enforcement recommendation that did anything less.

Closing Thoughts

I delivered my first prepared remarks as a Commissioner in November 2017 at Georgetown University.[47]  I vividly remember walking through campus on that crisp autumn evening in Washington, feeling a bit nervous about my first speech, which focused on the importance of CFTC markets, the lingering impacts of the global financial crisis, and the critical role derivatives markets play in the global economy.  In many respects, not much has changed.  In other respects, so much has changed.

With globally traded commodities, investments, and all manner of transactions executed, cleared, and priced off CFTC regulated entities in U.S. dollars, the U.S. derivatives markets are critical to our nation’s economy and long-term national security.  This position cannot be taken for granted.  For those of us entrusted to support and safeguard this privilege beyond our tenancy for decades to come, we must act with an eye towards anyone or anything that may undermine this supremacy.  Geopolitical stress is increasing our need to be vigilant, and the macroeconomic waters remain choppy as inflation lingers as a threat.  And perhaps even more so is the influx of new entrants with a voracious desire to list contracts on anything and everything that may entice a growing cohort of speculators eager to participate, and fearful of missing out.

Innovation has changed the modern methods of derivatives trading, and our regulated exchanges bear little resemblance to those that existed even 50 years ago when the Commission’s first Chairman accepted his appointment.  Their primary function as a means for hedging and price discovery remains paramount and continues to rely upon a fluctuating mix of speculators at the forefront of forecasting changes in the value of commodities and pure gamblers playing the odds for the thrill of a payout, their symbiotic relationship always in the crosshairs of legitimacy.  It is of no moment that the line between the two is increasingly indistinct.  What matters is the proposition that when derivatives trading occurs on an organized exchange subject to strictly enforced rules and oversight, and within a system of effective self-regulation, there should be no mistaking the experience for gaming, gambling, or anything less than the bustling throws of commerce.

I say this now because there is much to distract the CFTC from what is important, from what we are charged with doing.  Today, technology is driving change in the financial markets faster than it ever has.  Products and structures are evolving not only to meet demand from a growing customer base that is diverse in terms of geography, sophistication, and objectives, but also to attract participants from the broader population whose interest is piqued by the promise of financial inclusion and prosperity made possible by the tech-driven ease of access to regulated markets.  To that end, we increasingly find ourselves poised to make decisions that blow past our historical roots in the agricultural markets and leave us at the threshold of the increasing expansion, transformation, and sometimes, gamification of the derivatives markets.

Change continues to push markets and regulators into areas ripe for exploration.  It’s exciting; there are some changes in the rhythm, but familiar cycles, scenery, and people keep us grounded as we advance towards creating greater efficiencies, heightening protections, improving risk management, welcoming new players, designing new products, and building new structures.  Of course, however swiftly we navigate, we can never do so without caution, deliberation, and maneuvering around a fair share of unseasonal conditions. Fortunately, as we’ve seen time after time, we have the wisdom of the past as we forge our future.

I am stepping down as Chairman at noon on January 20.  I look forward to working with the Trump transition team and supporting an orderly transition between now and inauguration.  And as I noted in a statement yesterday, my final day at the CFTC will be shortly thereafter, on Friday, February 7th.

Meeting demands for accuracy, legitimacy, and transparency requires responding to market participants, and we cannot do that effectively if we are preoccupied with falling into a spiral of uncertainty or sealing the gates of government from fear of public engagement.  I hope my successors trust their instincts, trust one another, trust the process, the cycles, the seasons, the eras as they bring us someplace new, but always with a nod to where we have been.

Thank you.


[1] See Rostin Behnam, Chairman, CFTC, Keynote of Chairman Rostin Behnam at the FIA Boca 2022 International Futures Industry Conference, Boca Raton, Florida (Mar. 16, 2022), Keynote of Chairman Rostin Behnam at the FIA Boca 2022 International Futures Industry Conference, Boca Raton, Florida | CFTC.

[2] See, e.g., Rostin Behnam, Chairman, CFTC, Keynote of Chairman Rostin Behnam at Bloomberg’s The Final Chapter for USD LIBOR (Nov. 17, 2022), Keynote of Chairman Rostin Behnam at Bloomberg’s The Final Chapter for USD LIBOR | CFTC.

[3] See, e.g., Press Release Number 8409-21, CFTC, CFTC Market Risk Advisory Committee Adopts SOFR First Recommendation at Public Meeting (July 13, 2021), CFTC Market Risk Advisory Committee Adopts SOFR First Recommendation at Public Meeting | CFTC.

[4] See Press Release Number 8573-22, CFTC, CFTC Issues Final Rule Modifying the Swap Clearing Requirement in Support of the Transition from LIBOR and Other Interbank Offered Rates to Alternative Reference Rates (Aug. 12, 2022), CFTC Issues Final Rule Modifying the Swap Clearing Requirement In Support of the Transition from LIBOR and Other Interbank Offered Rates to Alternative Reference Rates | CFTC.

[5] See Public Statement, CFTC, Statement from CFTC Staff on Transition Away from LIBOR (June 14, 2021), Statement from CFTC Staff on Transition Away from LIBOR | CFTC.

[6] Managing Climate Risk in the U.S. Financial System, Report to the CFTC’s Market Risk Advisory Committee by the Climate-Related Market Risk Subcommittee (Sept. 2020), Managing Climate Risk in the U.S. Financial System (cftc.gov).

[7] See Pess Release Number 8234-20, CFTC, CFTC’s Climate Related Market Risk Subcommittee Releases Report (Sept. 9, 2020), CFTC’s Climate-Related Market Risk Subcommittee Releases Report | CFTC.

[8] See Press Release Number 8368-21, CFTC Acting Chairman Behnam Creates New Climate Risk Unit (Mar. 17, 2021), CFTC Acting Chairman Behnam Establishes New Climate Risk Unit | CFTC.

[9] See CFTC, Event: Commission Meetings, CFTC Announces Voluntary Carbon Markets Convening (Jun. 2, 2022), https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/Events/opaeventcftccarbonmarketconvene060222; and CFTC, Event: Commission Meetings, CFTC Announces Second Voluntary Carbon Markets Convening, (July 19, 2023), https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/Events/opaeventvoluntarycarbonmarkets071923.

[10] Request for Information on Climate-Related Financial Risk, 87 Fed. Reg. 34856 (Jun. 8, 2022), available at 2022-12302a.pdf (cftc.gov).

[11] Commission Guidance Regarding the Listing of Voluntary Carbon Credit Derivative Contracts; Request for Comment, 88 FR 89410 (Dec. 27, 2023), 2023-28532a.pdf (cftc.gov).

[12] See Vasil Valev, COP28 Update on Day Six: The Most Important Developments for the Carbon Industry, Carbon Herald (Dec. 5, 2023), COP28 Update On Day Six: The Most Important Developments For The Carbon Industry (carbonherald.com).

[13] See Rostin Behnam, Chairman, CFTC, Statement of Chairman Rostin Behnam on the Proposed Commission Guidance Regarding the Listing of Voluntary Carbon Credit Derivative Contracts (Dec. 4, 2023), Statement of Chairman Rostin Behnam on the Proposed Commission Guidance Regarding the Listing of Voluntary Carbon Credit Derivative Contracts | CFTC.

[14] See International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), CR06/2023 Voluntary Carbon Markets, Consultation Report (Dec. 2023), CR06/2023 Voluntary Carbon Markets (iosco.org).

[15] See Pess Release Number 8969-24, CFTC, CFTC Approves Final Guidance Regarding the Listing of Voluntary Carbon Credit Derivative Contracts (Sept. 20, 2024), CFTC Approves Final Guidance Regarding the Listing of Voluntary Carbon Credit Derivative Contracts | CFTC

[16] See, e.g., Rostin Behnam, Chairman, CFTC, Remarks of Chairman Rostin Behnam at the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association 16th Annual Meeting, Fort Worth, Texas (Dec. 1, 2023),Remarks of Chairman Rostin Behnam at the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association 16th Annual Meeting, Fort Worth, Texas | CFTC, Rostin Behnam, Chairman, CFTC, Testimony by Chairman Rostin Behnam Before the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Committee on Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives (Mar. 28, 2023), Testimony by Chairman Rostin Behnam Before the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Committee on Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives | CFTC; Rostin Behnam, Chairman, CFTC, Remarks of Chairman Rostin Behnam a the Commodity Markets Council 2023 State of the Industry Conference, Fort Lauderdale, Florida (Jan. 23, 2023), Remarks of Chairman Rostin Behnam at the Commodity Markets Council 2023 State of the Industry Conference, Fort Lauderdale, Florida | CFTC.

[17] See, e.g.¸ Rostin Behnam, Chairman, CFTC, Testimony of Chairman Rostin Behnam Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry’s Hearing on the Oversight of Digital Commodities (July 10, 2024), Testimony of Chairman Rostin Behnam Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry’s Hearing on the Oversight of Digital Commodities | CFTC.

[18] See Press Release Number 7654-17, CFTC, Statement on Self-Certification of Bitcoin Products by CME, CFE and Cantor Exchange (Dec. 1, 2017), CFTC Statement on Self-Certification of Bitcoin Products by CME, CFE and Cantor Exchange | CFTC.

[19] See, e.g., Rostin Behnam, Chairman, CFTC, Keynote Address of Chairman Rostin Behnam at the Brookings Institution Webcast on the Future of Crypto Regulation (July 25, 2022), Keynote Address of Chairman Rostin Behnam at the Brookings Institution Webcast on The Future of Crypto Regulation | CFTC.

[20] See Rostin Behnam, Push Us Past Inertia—How the White House Can Help Mainstream FinTech, Bloomberg Law (May 21, 2019), INSIGHT: Push Us Past Inertia—How the White House Can Help Mainstream FinTech (bloomberglaw.com).

[21] Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets (Mar. 9, 2022), Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets | The White House.

[22] See Financial Stability Oversight Council, Report on Digital Assets and Financial Stability Risks and Regulation (Oct. 2022), Report on Digital Asset Financial Stability Risks and Regulation 2022 (treasury.gov).

[23] See Rostin Behnam, Commissioner, CFTC, Remarks of CFTC Commissioner Rostin Behnam at the ASIFMA 2018 Annual Conference: Developing Asia’s Capital Markets, Singapore (Nov. 1, 2018), Remarks of CFTC Commissioner Rostin Behnam at the ASIFMA 2018 Annual Conference: Developing Asia’s Capital Markets, Singapore | CFTC

[24] Id. 

[25] See Rostin Behnam, Chairman, CFTC, Keynote of Chairman Rostin Behnam at the 2023 U.S. Treasury Market Conference (Nov. 16, 2023), Keynote of Chairman Rostin Behnam at the 2023 U.S. Treasury Market Conference | CFTC.

[26] See Press Release Number 8843-23, CFTC, CFTC Chairman Announced Division of Data Appointments to Continue the CFTC’s Focus on Mission Critical Data (Dec. 21, 2023), CFTC Chairman Announces Division of Data Appointments to Continue the CFTC’s Focus on Mission Critical Data | CFTC.

[27] See Press Release Number 8903-24, CFTC, Chairman Behnam Designates Ted Kaouk as the CFTC’s First Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer (May 1, 2024), Chairman Behnam Designates Ted Kaouk as the CFTC’s First Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer | CFTC.

[28] See Behnam, supra note 25.

[29] See Press Release Number 9013-24, CFTC, CFTC Staff Issues Advisory Related to the Use of Artificial Intelligence by CFTC-Registered Entities and Registrants (Dec. 5, 2024), CFTC Staff Issues Advisory Related to the Use of Artificial Intelligence by CFTC-Registered Entities and Registrants | CFTC.

[30] The advisory was also informed by public comment on staff’s Request for Comment on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in CFTC-Regulated Markets.  See Press Release Number 8853-24, CFTC, CFTC Staff Releases Request for Comment on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in CFTC-Regulated Markets (Jan. 25, 2024), CFTC Staff Releases Request for Comment on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in CFTC-Regulated Markets | CFTC.

[31]See Rostin Behnam, Chairman, CFTC, Statement of Chairman Rostin Behnam on the Staff Advisory Related to the Use of Artificial Intelligence by CFTC-Registered Entities and Registrants (Dec. 5, 2024), Statement of Chairman Rostin Behnam on the Staff Advisory Related to the Use of Artificial Intelligence by CFTC-Registered Entities and Registrants | CFTC.

[32] See, e.g., Rostin Behnam, Chairman, CFTC, Keynote Address of Chairman Rostin Behnam at the Futures Industry Association Expo 2023 (Oct. 3, 2023), Keynote Address of Chairman Rostin Behnam at the Futures Industry Association Expo 2023, Chicago, Illinois | CFTC.

[33] See Rostin Behnam, Chairman, CFTC, Keynote Address of Chairman Rostin Behnam at the ABA Business Law Section Derivatives & Futures Law Committee Winter Meeting (Feb. 3, 2023), Keynote Address of Chairman Rostin Behnam at the ABA Business Law Section Derivatives & Futures Law Committee Winter Meeting | CFTC.

[34] Press Release Number 8534-22, CFTC, CFTC Orders Glencore to Pay $1.186 Billion for Manipulation and Corruption (May 24, 2022), CFTC Orders Glencore to Pay $1.186 Billion for Manipulation and Corruption | CFTC; Rostin Behnam, Chairman, CFTC, Statement of Chairman Rostin Behnam at Press Conference Announcing Enforcement Action Involving Manipulation and Corruption in the U.S. and Global Oil Markets (May 24, 2022), Statement of Chairman Rostin Behnam at Press Conference Announcing Enforcement Action Involving Manipulation and Corruption in the U.S. and Global Oil Markets | CFTC.

[35]Press Release Number 8825-23, CFTC, Binance and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, Agree to Pay $2.85 Billion for Willfully Evading U.S. Law, Illegally Operating a Digital Asset Derivatives Exchange, and Other Violations (Nov. 21, 2023), Binance and Its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, Agree to Pay $2.85 Billion for Willfully Evading U.S. Law, Illegally Operating a Digital Asset Derivatives Exchange, and Other Violations | CFTC; See also, Statement of Chairman Rostin Behnam Regarding Binance and its Founder (Nov. 21, 2023), Statement of Chairman Rostin Behnam Regarding Binance and its Founder | CFTC.

[36] See Rostin Behnam, Commissioner, CFTC, Delivering a Message on Relationship Patterns: Remarks by Commissioner Rostin Behnam before Energy Risk USA, Houston, Texas (May 15, 2018), Remarks of Commissioner Rostin Behnam before Energy Risk USA, Houston, Texas | CFTC.

[37] See, e.g., Rostin Behnam, Commissioner, CFTC, Remarks of Commissioner Rostin Behnam before ethe FIA/SIFMA Asset Management Group, Asset Management Derivatives Forum 2018, Dana Point (Feb. 8, 2018), Remarks of Commissioner Rostin Behnam before the FIA/SIFMA Asset Management Group, Asset Management Derivatives Forum 2018, Dana Point, California | CFTC.

[38] See, e.g., Ian McGinley, CFTC, Remarks of Enforcement Director Ian McGinley at the City Bar White Collar Institute: “Trends in the CFTC’s Recent Crypto Enforcement Actions” (May 23, 2024), Remarks of Enforcement Director Ian McGinley at the City Bar White Collar Institute: “Trends in the CFTC’s Recent Crypto Enforcement Actions” | CFTC.

[39] Rostin Behnam, Chairman, CFTC, Testimony by Chairman Rostin Behnam Before the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, Committee on Appropriations, U.S. Senate (June 13, 2024), Testimony of Chairman Rostin Behnam Before the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, Committee on Appropriations, U.S. Senate | CFTC.

[40] See Press Release Number 8736-23, CFTC, CFTC Division of Enforcement Creates Two New Task Forces (June 29, 2023), CFTC Division of Enforcement Creates Two New Task Forces | CFTC.

[41] See Press Release Number 8726-23, CFTC, CFTC Charges California Resident and His Corporation with Fraud and Misappropriation in a Popular Romance Scam Involving Digital Asset Commodities and Forex (June 22, 2023), CFTC Charges California Resident and His Corporation with Fraud and Misappropriation in a Popular Romance Scam Involving Digital Asset Commodities and Forex | CFTC.

[42] See Press Release Number 8932-24, CFTC, First Interagency Fraud Disruption Conference Focuses on Combatting Crypto Schemes Commonly Known as “Pig Butchering” (July 11, 2024), First Interagency Fraud Disruption Conference Focuses on Combatting Crypto Schemes Commonly Known as “Pig Butchering” | CFTC.

[43] See, e.g., Barbara Pianese, How regulatory enforcement might change under Trump, The Banker (Dec. 17, 2024)How regulatory enforcement might change under Trump - The Banker.

[44] See, e.g., Rostin Behnam, Chairman, CFTC, Keynote of Chairman Rostin Behnam at the FIA Boca 2024 International Futures Industry Conference, Boca Raton, Florida (Mar. 12, 2024), (Keynote of Chairman Rostin Behnam at the FIA Boca 2024 International Futures Industry Conference, Boca Raton, Florida | CFTC.

[45] Id.

[46] See, e.g., Rostin Behnam, supra note 37.

[47] Rostin Behnam, Commissioner, Remarks of CFTC Commissioner Rostin Behnam at the Georgetown Center for Financial Markets and Policy (Nov. 14, 2017), Remarks of CFTC Commissioner Rostin Behnam at the Georgetown Center for Financial Markets and Policy | CFTC.

-CFTC-