CFTC files crypto market rules with White House as CLARITY Act stalls

The CFTC filed a rulemaking titled "Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets" with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on Sept. 17, the agency said, days after the CLARITY Act stalled in the Senate. CFTC Chair Mike Selig said the agency was "locked in and ready to ship" rules for crypto markets using its existing statutory authority, and the filing is listed at the "prerule" stage, meaning it has not been formally proposed. For now, nothing in the filing changes what a retail user can or cannot do with a derivatives account.

The OIRA review is the front end of a longer process. Once the Office of Management and Budget returns the draft, the CFTC would hold a commission vote, open a public comment period, and need a second commission vote before any of the rules could take effect. None of the rulemaking's text has been disclosed: which crypto assets would be covered, what exchanges would need to do to qualify, what restrictions would apply, and how far the CFTC believes its existing authority extends all remain unknown, and the agency declined to comment on the details.

What the rulemaking could enable, per Selig

In remarks in August, Selig described the kind of regime the package might set up: current registrants and non-registrant crypto exchanges could be designated by the CFTC as a type of DCM known as a "crypto asset market," and could offer crypto asset trading on a leveraged or margined basis under "purpose-fit rules" and CFTC oversight. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, posting on X on Sept. 15, said the SEC and CFTC had "the tools they need to create clear rules under existing authority" and that he expected them to begin working on the issue "in earnest."

The Friday no-action letter

What does change this week is the path for software providers. The CFTC issued a no-action letter giving certain software companies a way to connect users to regulated derivatives markets without registering as introducing brokers. The relief covers passive software that lets users view markets and submit orders directly to registered firms, including through crypto wallets, and lasts until the CFTC adopts rules or guidance on software-developer registration.

Providers can market specific contracts and take transaction-based fees, but they cannot hold customer assets, generate buy or sell signals, or control how orders are routed or executed; the letter also carries conditions on risk disclosures, recordkeeping and compliance with marketing rules.

The SEC's parallel move

On the same Thursday, the SEC issued an "innovation exemption" giving qualifying platforms a five-year path to offer onchain trading of certain tokenized stocks without registering as securities exchanges. Both agencies have said they will keep working together to deliver clearer rules under their existing authority after the CLARITY Act failed to pass.

What to watch next

What the CFTC's package covers remains undisclosed, and the OIRA review has no published timeline for returning the draft to the commission. The open question for retail is whether perps and margin on platforms outside the existing DCM perimeter become available through a "crypto asset market" designation, and on what conditions; Selig's August framing points in that direction, but the rulemaking text, the asset scope, and any statutory ceiling the White House review might recognise have not been put on paper.