The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has handed its latest crypto market plan to the White House for review, and this time it is moving faster than Congress. The agency filed “Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets” with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on Sept. 17, putting the proposal at the “prerule” stage. That means the CFTC is still gathering input before it even writes the actual rules.
The filing arrives days after the Senate failed to pass the CLARITY Act, a bill aimed at giving the federal government a clearer role in overseeing crypto markets. Instead of waiting for lawmakers to act, the CFTC is leaning on its own legal powers. Chair Michael Selig made that clear in a Sept. 15 post on X, where he said the agency was “locked in and ready to ship” crypto market rules using its existing authority.
What the CFTC Filed
The prerule stage is an early step in the rulemaking process. The CFTC has not formally proposed the regulation yet. It has simply told the White House it is working on it and asked for permission to move forward.
The filing covers two separate areas:
- Regulation of crypto asset transactions
- Regulation of crypto asset markets
The CFTC has not released details on what each part would cover. That will come later, once the agency decides what it wants to change.
The CFTC has not offered a timeline for when those details might arrive. The agency has only indicated that it is still in the early stages of gathering input and has not yet decided what specific changes it intends to make to existing crypto regulations.
Why the CLARITY Act Failed
The Senate voted on Sept. 15 to move the CLARITY Act forward. The vote failed, leaving the bill dead for now. That failure changed the calculus for regulators. Selig had already signaled before the vote that the CFTC was prepared to act without Congress.
On Aug. 20, at the CFTC’s Innovation Advisory Committee conference, Selig said the agency was ready to use its existing authority to set up a crypto asset market regime if the CLARITY Act stalled. He also directed CFTC staff to look at rules that would let existing registrants and currently unregistered crypto exchanges become a type of designated contract market called a “crypto asset market.” That market would allow leveraged or margined crypto trading under CFTC oversight.
The vote on Sept. 15 came at a critical moment for both regulators. With the CLARITY Act failing, the SEC and CFTC were left with the same question: whether to wait for new legislation or use their existing legal powers to regulate the industry.
Selig’s X Post
Selig’s Sept. 15 post on X was direct. He said the agency was locked in and ready to ship rules for crypto markets using its existing statutory authority. He did not wait for a response from Congress. He did not offer a timeline. He simply said the work was happening.
The post came hours after the Senate vote failed. It was a clear signal that the CFTC was not waiting for lawmakers to catch up.
The SEC’s Position
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is moving in the same direction. Chair Paul Atkins said the securities regulator would move ahead “with or without legislation.” That matches Selig’s approach. Both agencies are using their existing legal powers rather than waiting for new laws.
The SEC also took action the day after the vote. It announced temporary exemptions for certain platforms facilitating onchain trading of tokenized securities. The CFTC followed with its own move the next day, issuing a no-action position for providers of passive software.
Both regulators have now moved within days of each other, each using its own legal authority to address crypto trading. The SEC’s temporary exemptions for tokenized securities and the CFTC’s no-action position for passive software show that both agencies are taking concrete steps toward regulating crypto markets, even without new legislation.
Coinbase’s Response
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong saw the shift coming. On Sept. 15, he wrote on X that 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.” He concluded, “So clarity is coming to crypto regardless.”
Armstrong’s message reflects a broader shift in the crypto industry. Companies are increasingly positioning themselves to comply with whatever regulatory framework emerges, rather than waiting for Congress to settle the matter.
What Happens Next
The CFTC has handed its plan to the White House. The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs will review it.
After that, the CFTC will propose actual rules. Those rules will be open for public comment. Companies affected by the proposals will have a chance to respond before anything becomes final.
The SEC is moving separately but in the same direction. Both agencies are using their existing legal powers rather than waiting for Congress to act.
The Outcome
The CFTC is moving ahead without new legislation. The CLARITY Act failed, and the agency responded quickly. Selig’s post on X made that clear: the work is locked in and ready to ship.
The SEC is taking similar steps. Both regulators are using the legal authority they already hold rather than waiting for Congress to act.
Clarity is coming to crypto, and it is coming from regulators using the tools they already have.
Where the paper stands
The paper backs the small crypto firm and is against the CFTC’s prerule approach, which hands regulatory writing to an agency already pushing toward broader market control. The CFTC’s filing at the prerule stage hands the CFTC itself the power to shape the market, and that is a risk the paper takes seriously.
The CFTC’s chair has made clear the agency is “locked in and ready to ship” crypto market rules using its existing authority. The paper’s concern is not the technology itself but who controls it. The paper supports narrow rules against direct harm, such as forcing companies to disclose safety failures they hid, and opposes broad rules that hand the market to the incumbents.
The CFTC has not released details on what each part of its proposal would cover. That will come later, once the agency decides what it wants to change. The SEC has also moved ahead with temporary exemptions for tokenized securities and a no-action position for passive software. The paper will watch how these moves affect the smaller firms first, because the danger is big tech dominance, not the technology itself.
Source material: “CFTC submits crypto market regulation plan for White House review,” Cointelegraph.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.