Congress couldn't pass crypto market structure, so the CFTC is writing its own rules.
On Oct 5, Chairman Michael Selig published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking with two pieces:
- Regulation CTX: defines which retail crypto trades with leverage, margin or financing fall under CFTC authority.
- Regulation CAM: a tailored federal registration for "crypto asset markets" that want to offer those trades.
It comes right after the Senate's CLARITY Act stalled. Selig called it "a critical step" toward "clarity, certainty, and consumer protections", pointing to the White House directive to build crypto market structure with existing CFTC powers.
Before anyone calls this "regulatory clarity", read the fine print:
- It's an advance notice, the earliest stage of rulemaking. There's a 60-day comment window, then a proposal, then a final rule. Nothing changes for traders this year.
- Registration is optional. Platforms that like operating offshore can simply not opt in.
- Spot trading is left out entirely and stays with state regulators, so the patchwork remains.
- Rules written by an agency, not Congress, can be rewritten by the next administration.
The fair counterpoint: US retail already uses leverage, mostly through offshore venues with little protection. A federal path to bring that onshore, with real oversight, is better than pretending the demand doesn't exist.
Is this the start of real US crypto rules, or a workaround that lasts only as long as this administration?
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