CFTC Unveils Crypto Oversight Proposal for U.S. Exchanges

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission unveiled a proposal for new regulations covering digital asset trades and marketplaces.

According to a Monday statement, the regulator's plan would let American digital asset platforms voluntarily submit to federal oversight.

Lawmakers blocked the Clarity Act last month, but the CFTC and SEC have moved forward with their own rule proposals for the crypto sector.

"Today's action is a critical step in the CFTC's ongoing efforts to ensure America remains the crypto capital of the world," Chair Mike Selig said.

JUST IN: CFTC proposes rules to regulate U.S. crypto markets.

"Today's action is just the beginning…America can lead the next generation of financial technology without repeating the mistakes of the last one."

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) October 5, 2026

Selig added: "The Commission's announcement begins our process of new rulemakings grounded in the CEA's purpose and President Trump's directive to propose a federal crypto asset regulatory market structure using the CFTC's existing statutory authorities."

Should the proposal be adopted, exchanges that handle leveraged transactions would be able to register with the CFTC.

The Clarity Act aims to split regulatory authority, clarifying whether a given digital asset counts as a security, commodity or stablecoin.

The legislation ran into trouble this year: the banking sector objected to crypto firms offering stablecoin rewards to clients, and a number of lawmakers, chiefly Democrats, raised ethical concerns about the bill.

Nonetheless, regulators are moving ahead with rulemaking that the crypto sector has demanded for years.

CFTC Chair Selig, a former chief counsel at the SEC's Crypto Task Force, said last month that the regulator was preparing for markets to operate "24-7, on-chain."

The Securities and Exchange Commission, similarly led by a crypto-friendly chair, gave the go-ahead in September for trading in tokenized equities.

That decision followed the SEC's August proposal of its own set of rules for crypto offerings, advancing as the Clarity Act remained stuck.

Donald Trump ran for the presidency on a platform of supporting digital assets and has enacted several crypto-friendly laws and executive orders since assuming office.

In August, Trump pushed lawmakers to pass the Clarity Act, describing the proposal as "very powerful."

The CFTC's initial rulemaking notice will be open for 60 days of public comment once it appears in the Federal Register. Following that, the agency will evaluate the input and determine whether to publish a formal proposal, which would then undergo another comment phase before any final regulation can be enacted.