Washington, DC—Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Commissioner Caroline D. Pham today released the following statement regarding the CFTC’s complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York:

“The CFTC continues to aggressively pursue alleged fraud in crypto assets and relentlessly uphold its mission to protect the retail public. I commend the efforts of the Division of Enforcement to seek justice for victims. However, I caution that the CFTC’s interpretation of a commodity pool operator in this enforcement action would seem to include commonplace lending activity—like taking deposits and providing loans. Such an interpretation is an overreach beyond our statutory authority and would disrupt well-established legal and regulatory frameworks for lending to institutions and consumer finance. There is a significant difference between managing investor money for the purpose of trading derivatives, and taking deposits and providing loans to others. Without financing and consumer credit, our economy would grind to a halt.”