The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Monday opened a 60-day comment period on two planned crypto rules for leveraged trading, though ordinary spot trading remains largely beyond its authority.
Key Points:
- The agency issued an advance notice on Regulation CTX and Regulation CAM, an early step ahead of any formal proposal.
- Exchanges offering leverage or margin to retail customers could register as a new type of federally supervised venue.
- Unleveraged spot trading stays under state rules unless Congress acts.
CFTC Crypto Rules
The agency published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions, or Regulation CTX, and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets, or Regulation CAM. Chairman Michael Selig presented the plan in a speech at Fordham University's law school in New York and defended it in a newspaper op-ed.
The notice comes before any formal proposal and sets no binding requirements yet.
Written comments are due 60 days after the notice appears in the Federal Register, and the agency said they would inform any later rulemaking. The framework would cover crypto trades involving leverage, margin or financing.
It would also create a registration category called a crypto asset market, a narrower version of the designated contract market status that futures exchanges already hold. Registration would be voluntary, though it would bring anti-manipulation controls and a proof-of-reserves obligation. Venues that opt in would follow one federal rulebook instead of a patchwork of state money-transmitter licenses, with registered futures commission merchants handling customer trades.
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Selig Spot Gap
The plan stops short of the spot market.
Direct buying and selling of assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), without leverage, stays under state money-transmission law, which the federal plan cannot replace.
The CFTC can still police fraud and manipulation there. Selig wrote that the agency lacks authority to force crypto assets onto registered platforms without action from Congress.
"We are giving them an answer," Selig said in the speech, referring to entrepreneurs who spent years unsure whether U.S. markets had a place for them. He also conceded that agency action cannot replace a law indefinitely, and analysts have cautioned that rules without a statute behind them could fall to court challenges or a change in political leadership.
Clarity Act Fallout
Congress had a chance to close that gap. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which would have given the CFTC explicit authority over spot crypto markets, stalled in the Senate weeks ago, leaving regulators to act on their own. The Securities and Exchange Commission has moved faster, proposing custody rules for investment firms last week after it and the CFTC jointly classified Bitcoin and Ether as non-securities earlier this year.
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