Executives From Franklin Templeton and BNY Mellon Co-Chair New Digital Assets Panel at CFTC

Top executives of two prominent financial institutions have been chosen to be co-chairs of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) new digital assets panel.

According to a new press release by the regulatory agency, Caroline Butler, the global head of digital assets at banking titan BNY Mellon, and Sandy Kaul, the head of digital and industry advisory services at investment firm Franklin Templeton, will together serve as co-chairs of the new Digital Assets Market Subcommittee.

The announcement was made by CFTC Commissioner Caroline Pham.

In the press release, Butler said BNY Mellon is committed to “playing a leadership role in shaping the future of finance.”

In a recent interview with Scott Melker, Franklin Templeton’s Kaul predicted that institutional investments will ultimately form a strong foundation for the digital asset space.

“I think that you’re starting to see that institutional interest. I think that they will come in each time the market falls and put a little bit more on and a little bit more on, and over time that will start to create a good foundation for the markets.

And then when the next bull run really starts to occur and retail interest starts to build again that institutional floor will be under the marketplace. I think that this is a cycle, and we are at the part of the cycle that’s actually super healthy for the long-term growth of the marketplace because these institutions have staying power.”

Last month, the CFTC approved leveraged crypto derivatives products for the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), the same institution that filed a bid on behalf of financial services giant Fidelity to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to create a spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF).

The filing was reportedly returned by the SEC for being unclear and incomprehensive.