Stellar Joins CFTC Global Market Advisory Committee
Stellar Development Foundation will join the U.S. commodities regulator's advisory committee for digital asset markets. Other members of the group include Uniswap Labs, CoinFund, HSBC and BlackRock.
Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), a non-profit group supporting the Stellar blockchain and issuance of its native token XLM, becomes the newest member of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Global Markets Advisory Committee. The company will join crypto counterparts CoinFund, Uniswap Labs and the Chamber of Digital Commerce in a 36-member committee that includes traditional financial giants like HSBC, J.P Morgan, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock.
GMAC is an initiative by the CFTC to develop appropriate policy regulations for the digital financial asset market. The commodities regulator relaunched the committee to incorporate crypto assets, demonstrating how crucial blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are to the future of U.S. markets.
“Our inclusion in the Committee marks another important moment for blockchain. it further acknowledges that the future of U.S. markets and our industry are connected. It also underscores the CFTC’s commitment to building a diverse consortium representing more than just traditional finance players,” read a statement released by the Stellar Development Foundation.
SDF chief operating officer Jason Chlipala will be representing the only blockchain protocol on the Committee to bring to light the “unique perspective” of Layer-1 protocols and their underlying infrastructure supporting various decentralized applications (DApp). The company will discuss the role of stablecoins — fiat-backed crypto tokens used to trade other crypto assets — in the digital asset industry and real-world use cases. Stellar leverages the assets when delivering humanitarian aid through the Stellar Aid Assist program. The network also issues stablecoins on its blockchain.
In December 2022, SDF partnered with United Nations to develop a financial aid delivery system for war refugees in Ukraine. The program, managed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), will see the humanitarian group send USDC stablecoins to Ukrainians’ Stellar-based digital wallet — Vibrant. Earlier this month, TASCOMBANK completed a pilot program for the e-hryvnia on Stellar. Ukraine’s oldest bank was testing the use cases and benefits of issuing a national digital currency on the blockchain.
Stellar is an open-source blockchain optimized for cross-border payments and asset issuance. Users can create, send and trade digital representations for all forms of value, like fiat, crypto and even real estate on the network. Stellar is designed to be a decentralized and open network that can be interoperated with the global financial system, handling millions of transactions at faster and cheaper rates. All transactions on the proof-of-stake blockchain are paid for using the XLM token.
CFTC commissioner Caroline Pham, appointed by President Joe Biden in January 2022, will be sponsoring the GMAC this year. The committee will hold its first meeting on February 13, discussing organizational issues regarding crypto-asset markets and making policy suggestions to the CFTC.
“Blockchain’s future is not to supplant traditional finance but to build on top and work with the system we’ve already created. This vision requires blockchain and traditional finance to work together and to ensure the systems are interoperable to work as seamlessly as possible,” said Jason Chlipala.
At the time of writing, XLM is trading at $0.08 — up by 7.6% in the last 24 hours.