Chainlink Co-Founder Joins CFTC Advisory Body
Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, has been appointed to an advisory body for the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The appointment reflects the increasing integration of digital asset expertise within traditional financial regulatory bodies.
- The advisory body is the CFTC's new Innovation Advisory Committee (IAC), which replaced the former Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) in January 2026. Its purpose is to guide the commission on the impact of emerging technologies like blockchain and AI on the derivatives and commodity markets. - Nazarov's appointment is significant given Chainlink's central role in the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs), a market projected to reach trillions of dollars. Chainlink's oracle networks provide the essential off-chain data needed to value and manage these tokenized assets on-chain. - The 35-member committee is heavily weighted with crypto-native leaders, signaling a collaborative approach from the regulator. Fellow members include the CEOs of Coinbase, Ripple, Solana Labs, Uniswap, Kraken, and Grayscale, alongside partners from a16z crypto and Paradigm. - The committee's mandate from CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig is to help "future-proof" U.S. markets and develop "clear rules of the road for the Golden Age of American Financial Markets," indicating a proactive regulatory stance. - Beyond crypto, the advisory body also includes top executives from traditional finance giants like Nasdaq, CME Group, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), and the DTCC. This composition underscores the increasing integration of digital assets with established financial infrastructure. - The CFTC's jurisdiction primarily covers digital assets classified as commodities, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, and derivatives products like futures and options based on them. The commission's anti-fraud and anti-manipulation authority also extends to spot markets for these commodities. - The committee will also advise on artificial intelligence. The previous TAC had already made five recommendations for how the CFTC should handle "responsible AI" to safeguard financial markets, a focus the new IAC is expected to continue.
