On December 11, 2018, the CFTC issued its Request for Input on Crypto-Asset Mechanics and Markets (“RFI”) seeking public comment and feedback on the “technology, mechanics, and markets for virtual currencies beyond Bitcoin, namely Ether and its use on the Ethereum Network.”  The RFI was made in furtherance of the CFTC’s LabCFTC initiative and seeks information to “better inform the Commission and its operating divisions as the market evolves and potentially seeks to list new virtual currency-based futures and derivatives products.”  

“It is not illegal to be smarter than your counterparties in a swap transaction, nor is it improper to understand a financial product better than the people who invented the product.”   So wrote Judge Sullivan nearly two years after the bench trial in CFTC v. DRW, in entering judgment in favor of the Defendants on all of the CFTC’s market manipulation claims.  The long-anticipated decision is a significant setback for the CFTC’s anti-manipulation campaign.