On July 9, LabCFTC, the fintech office of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, announced that it will replace its annual one-day Fintech Forward conference with three separate online sessions under the series title Empower Innovation 2020.
The new conferences will take place on Sept. 24, Oct. 21 and Nov. 19, with LabCFTC subdividing the days by subject matter.
Director and Chief Innovation Officer Melissa Netram told Cointelegraph this was an effort to deal with reduced attention span for virtual rather than physical events: "To do a full day we knew that we'd probably end up with people getting distracted."
The annual Fintech Forward conferences have been a major part of the relatively young LabCFTC's work for several years.
It was at Fintech Forward 2019 that Chairman Heath Tarbert announced that LabCFTC would become an independent office within the commission under Netram.
Regarding LabCFTC's overall work during the COVID-19 pandemic, Netram told Cointelegraph that the office had been focusing on educating other parts of the agency: "We are able to focus more on these training sessions across the commission and touch on things, like I said, as basic as what is blockchain as well as more complex issues."
LabCFTC has yet to confirm an agenda for Empower Innovation.
CFTC's other crypto work and Project Streetlamp.
Current regulatory practice in the U.S. treats Bitcoin and Ether commodities, meaning that the CFTC monitors their markets and regulates their derivatives, but most crypto assets are still in limbo.
At the conference, LabCFTC will announce the winner of Project Streetlamp, a contest to find a tool capable of scanning the internet for futures offerings available in the U.S. but not registered with the CFTC..
Cointelegraph Exclusive: CFTC Moves Annual Fintech Conference Online
Published on Jul 9, 2020
by Cointele | Published on Coinage
Coinage
Recent News
View All
Blockchain Bites: Bitcoin's Run, Uniswap's Hemorrhaging Value, Anchorage's Banking Bid
Bitcoin is nearing all-time highs in price and market cap last set three years ago.
Japan's megabanks to lead experiment with digital yen
We have, in order, Cheese Bank with a $3.3 million theft, Akropolis with its $2 million loss, Value DeFi with a whopping $6 million exploit and finally Origin Protocol's loss of $7 million.
Number of new Bitcoin addresses spikes amid growing FOMO
Japan's three largest banks, as part of a group of 30 private sector actors, are set to collaborate on an experiment with a digital yen.
Not just Wall Street: Quant trader explains why Bitcoin price is going up
Sam Trabucco, a quantitative trader at Alameda Research, believes four general factors are pushing up the price of Bitcoin.