U.S. lawmakers have scheduled a hearing to examine the potential Pandora's Box opened by cryptocurrency exchange FTX when it applied to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to directly clear its customers' margin-backed swap trades.
The House Agriculture Committee - the congressional body that oversees the CFTC - will hold the May 12 hearing to talk about FTX.US Derivatives' proposal and how it could signal "new clearinghouse models" with its ideas for trading and clearing without the usual intermediaries. The committee has not yet announced any witnesses for the 10 a.m. hearing.
The hearing will be followed by a public roundtable discussion on May 25, at which the CFTC will invite industry representatives, academics and others to comment.
CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam told House lawmakers in March that the agency views FTX's application as the first of many.
"There will be more in the future," he said, adding that the new idea is a logical outgrowth of new technology to "break down some of these silos and have more direct access." Behnam said he has not yet decided whether to support the proposal, but noted that the proposal "could ultimately lead to more efficient trade execution and less risk in the system."