CFTC Proposes New Crypto Framework Rules After Failed CLARITY Vote

US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Michael Selig said that the agency will move forward on crypto regulation at the direction of President Donald Trump “with or without legislation” from Congress. 

Speaking at the Fordham Law Blockchain Regulatory Symposium on Monday, Selig announced proposals giving crypto companies the option to operate under the CFTC’s umbrella rather than dealing with the patchwork of regulations offered by individual US states. 

According to written remarks from the event, the CFTC chair said that it had issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemarking for companies “offering retail customers the ability to trade crypto assets on a margined, leveraged, or financed basis,” calling the regulation ‘CTX.’

Selig said that the agency planned to establish a new category of designated contract market (DCM) called a “crypto asset market,” or CAM, giving certain exchanges the option to register as either.

“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,” said Selig. 

CFTC Chair Michael Selig on Monday.
Source: Fordham Law Blockchain Regulatory Symposium

The proposed rules would not extend to what the chair called “ordinary spot crypto exchanges” that are “generally regulated under state money transmission laws.” For companies offering spot trading on crypto assets like Bitcoin (BTC), the CFTC would still have the authority to enforce anti-fraud and anti-manipulation regulations. 

Selig’s proposed regulatory framework for crypto companies came a few weeks after lawmakers in the US Senate failed to approve passage of the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, a bill that had been expected to give the CFTC more authority in overseeing and enforcing crypto regulations.

The Securities and Exchange Commission already announced its own version of a proposed “tailored securities offering regime” for crypto assets in August before the failed CLARITY vote, setting the expectation that both agencies would move forward with regulation without legislation codifying such rules from Congress.

Selig said that Trump promised to deliver a crypto asset regulatory market structure with or without legislation, and the regulators will help him deliver it using existing statutory authorities.

“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,” said ProChain Capital’s David Tawil, in a post on Monday.

Both regulators still understaffed as they advance crypto proposals

Friday was SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce’s last day at the agency, wrapping up eight years of service, just ahead of the 18-month extension for her second term. Her planned departure leaves just two commissioners leading the SEC and Selig heading the CFTC as its sole commissioner and chair.

A White House official told Cointelegraph last week that Trump intended to nominate commissioners to both agencies “in the near future.” As of Monday, the administration had not announced any replacements for Peirce or the other six commissioner seats.

Magazine: Former SEC boss made AI Czar, Bitcoin may hit $600K this cycle: Hodler’s Digest