Page 449 - 《期货和衍生品行业监管动态》（2022年合集）

期货和衍生品行业监管动态

“Today’s actions demonstrate the CFTC’s commitment to aggressively pursuing
individuals and their operations who purposefully seek to evade regulatory oversight

at the expense of retail customers,” said Chairman Rostin Behnam. “I commend our

dedicated enforcement team for pursuing this scheme which touches on many areas of

concern regarding this growing market.”

“These actions are part of the CFTC’s broader efforts to protect U.S. customers

in a rapidly evolving decentralized finance environment,” said Acting Director of

Enforcement Gretchen Lowe. “Margined, leveraged, or financed digital asset trading

offered to retail U.S. customers must occur on properly registered and regulated

exchanges in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations. These

requirements apply equally to entities with more traditional business structures as well

as to DAOs.”

Case Background

The order finds, and the complaint alleges, from approximately June 1, 2019 to

approximately August 23, 2021, the respondents designed, deployed, marketed, and

made solicitations concerning a blockchain-based software protocol that accepted

orders for and facilitated margined and leveraged retail commodity transactions

(functioning similarly to a trading platform). This protocol (the bZx Protocol)

permitted users to contribute margin (collateral) to open leveraged positions whose

ultimate value was determined by the price difference between two digital assets from

the time the position was established to the time it was closed. The bZx Protocol

purported to offer users the ability to engage in these transactions in a decentralized

environment—i.e., without third-party intermediaries taking custody of user assets.

These transactions were unlawful because they were required to take place on a

designated contract market, but did not. Additionally, by soliciting and accepting
orders for and entering into retail commodity transactions with customers, and

accepting money or property (or extending credit in lieu thereof) to margin these
transactions, bZeroX illegally operated as an unregistered FCM. bZeroX also failed to

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