LedgerX Claims 'Personal Animus' Drove Ex-CFTC Chair to Stall Approvals

LedgerX executives claim the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is treating them unfairly - because of a blog post.

According to two letters obtained by CoinDesk via a Freedom of Information Act request, LedgerX believes former CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo was personally biased against the company, and improperly used his position to delay the approval of an amended Derivatives Clearing Organization registration.

LedgerX CEO Paul Chou told CoinDesk in a phone call Saturday that the letters are accurate, and consist of only some of the messages sent to the agency.

CFTC spokesperson Michael Short told CoinDesk that he could not speak to the allegations in the letters, but generally, "The CFTC treats all registered entities equally," and LedgerX's business requires "Extensive consideration."

The CFTC asked LedgerX to acquire insurance and conduct a SOC 1 Type 2 audit, which aims to ensure that a company's controls are sufficient for its legal or technical mandate.

Deference to ICE. The letters also note that the CFTC's swap data repository requirements require LedgerX to report to the Intercontinental Exchange's ICE Trade Vault, which last year announced it would be launching a competing product to LedgerX in the form of Bakkt.

According to the letters, LedgerX has "Suffered considerable cost" and lost multiple employees due to these issues.

LedgerX called these actions "a gross violation" of the Chairman's duty to enforce the law.

LedgerX nearly beat Bakkt to launching physically delivered bitcoin futures contracts at the end of July.

On Sept. 20, Fortune published a preview piece, writing that Bakkt would offer "The first physically delivered crypto-currency contracts ever traded on a federally regulated exchange." LedgerX has offered physically-delivered options contracts since 2017.