Today, the discussion is only at the initial stage as the head of CFTC, Christopher Giancarlo, said, the regulator is trying to understand whether the Facebook project falls within its area of authority.
The CFTC regulates the US financial derivatives markets, and any financial product tied to the GlobalCoin cryptocurrency project, which Facebook is developing, must then meet all the necessary regulatory requirements.
“We want to understand the direction in which Facebook will evolve, however, we can give advice or take any decisions only if we have a request in front of us. At the moment – we don't” - says Giancarlo. “It is not yet known whether GlobalCoin will be used as a base for creating a new product, similar to Bitcoin futures, which we are regulating.”
In addition, there is information that Facebook recently contacted the US Treasury, which deals with, among other things, “illegal activities using digital assets”, in order to inform the regulator about the project development stage and get the necessary advice on issues of interest. Representatives of the company also sought advice from the Bank of England governor Mark Carney. True, the press service of the bank declined to comment on the situation.
More people and companies are interested in the development of digital currencies, especially those who seek to use any opportunities to obtain financial stability. Last month, Tobias Adrian, director of the currency markets department at the International Monetary Fund, said:
“Stablecoins fall under the definition of electronic money and their adoption can be extremely fast, but it can carry significant risks. The IMF should be directly involved in the supervision of such coins. "
Recall that a couple of weeks ago, Facebook registered a company in Switzerland, which, according to preliminary data, will be engaged in the development of GlobalCoin. A week ago, it became known that Facebook will launch a system of cryptocurrency payments in the “dozen countries” by the first quarter of 2020.