The CFTC, an acronym for the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, today published its second annual report on fiscal year 2019; the document highlights the successes of the institution in countering the illicit conduct on the markets, which go from bad behavior, through market manipulation and up to the actual frauds. The CFTC launched 69 actions during the year, with an increase compared to the average of the previous five years of 67.5%; as regards the cases related to manipulative behavior and spoofing, only 2018 had a number of events of this type greater than 2019. Of all the cases presented during the 2019 financial year, 65% involved accusations of fraud on raw materials, manipulative conduct or spoofing, violations that affect the heart of market integrity and harm market participants; this means that the largest number of illegal conduct in the USA has affected the regulated markets, a detail that undermines the media narrative that points the finger at the cryptocurrency market, claiming that it is a world in which the incidence of fraud and manipulation is particularly high.

Furthermore, in the report, the CTFC claims to have aggressively pursued the bad behaviors regarding digital assets, which in the USA are considered commodities. Another detail that we can deduce from the reading of the report is that even the vulgate according to which the world of cryptocurrencies is off the radar of regulatory institutions is patently false; while on the one hand it is undoubtedly true that an organization like the CFTC has no control over a decentralized currency like bitcoin, it is also true that the authorities exercise their control over companies operating in the sector. Exchange, payment processors, cryptocurrency issuers, ICOs or IEOs that have their registered office in a particular country must abide by the same legal obligations in that country for any other company and cannot escape these obligations in any way. We must therefore begin to distinguish between decentralized cryptocurrencies, over which nobody has jurisdiction, which do nothing but offer a global infrastructure and companies that, with different purposes, use that infrastructure to do business.