Selig Signals CFTC Will Crypto-Roll Solo if Congress Keeps Stalling 🏛️

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission will move forward on crypto regulation at President Donald Trump's direction "with or without legislation" from Congress, CFTC Chair Michael Selig said Monday at the Fordham Law Blockchain Regulatory Symposium. Selig announced proposals giving crypto companies the option to operate under the CFTC's umbrella instead of navigating a patchwork of state-by-state rules. The agency issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking for companies "offering retail customers the ability to trade crypto assets on a margined, leveraged, or financed basis," a framework Selig labeled "CTX."

Selig said the CFTC planned to create a new category of designated contract market called a "crypto asset market," or CAM, allowing certain exchanges to register under that designation. "These rules would codify a pathway for crypto asset exchanges to operate under uniform national oversight by the CFTC pursuant to the same statutory authorities that the prior administration instead utilized to regulate by enforcement," Selig said in written remarks. The proposed rules would not extend to "ordinary spot crypto exchanges" that are "generally regulated under state money transmission laws," though the CFTC would still retain authority to enforce anti-fraud and anti-manipulation rules over spot trading in assets like Bitcoin ($BTC).

The framework arrives weeks after the US Senate failed to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, legislation that would have expanded CFTC authority over crypto oversight. The Securities and Exchange Commission had already unveiled its own proposed "tailored securities offering regime" for crypto assets in August, ahead of the failed CLARITY vote. Selig said Trump had pledged to deliver a crypto asset regulatory market structure with or without legislation, and that the regulators would use existing statutory authorities to do so. "The opponents to CLARITY may have not bargained for the seeming readiness of the executive branch to act in the absence of any constraint from the legislative branch," ProChain Capital's David Tawil wrote on Monday.

Both agencies are advancing crypto proposals while remaining understaffed. Friday marked the last day of SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce's eight-year tenure at the agency, ahead of an 18-month extension for her second term. Her planned departure leaves two commissioners leading the SEC, with Selig heading the CFTC as its sole commissioner.