The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is already seeing demand from crypto exchanges that plan to opt in to its newly proposed rules governing digital assets, Chairman Michael Selig said this week.
The commodities regulator proposed the rules in October, aiming to prevent abuse in crypto markets and to codify crypto transaction standards under a federal rulebook. In announcing the move, Selig called it a "critical step" in ensuring the United States remains the crypto capital of the world.
Speaking with CNBC in an exclusive interview at Cantor Convergence, an annual financial technology conference held in Miami Beach, Selig said many of the major crypto exchanges are already registered with the CFTC because they offer financial derivatives, including perpetual futures, on their platforms, and would now be able to add spot trading.
"We're also getting interest from new entrants who say, 'Look, signing up with 50 different state regimes is tough. We'd rather come to one regulator and get a license at the CFTC' so those new entrants are lining up to come register with us as well," he added.
The regulatory push came after the Clarity Act, a comprehensive market structure bill establishing a framework for digital assets, stalled in the Senate in September. In response, the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission moved to build federal frameworks using their existing statutory authorities.
"We need to protect our markets and protect our customers using those markets so we'll continue to do exactly that in the wake of the Clarity Act failing to get the votes it needed to get to the president's desk during the current Congress," Selig said. He noted that the agency's statute provides authority to register exchanges that want to offer margined, leveraged, or financed crypto assets, and that the oversight is opt-in for exchanges not currently offering such financing, which is not permitted under existing state regimes.
The new rules could face fresh scrutiny in 2027, with Democrats set to take control of the House and Senate after the midterms. Selig said he hopes the United States will not see a wave of software developers moving offshore, as many crypto businesses threatened to do during the Biden administration, when the industry clashed with Washington and faced lawsuits brought by the SEC under former chair Gary Gensler. The relationship shifted after President Donald Trump's 2024 victory.
"I really hope that we learned lessons from the last several years in this space," Selig said. "I do hope that we can work together with both sides of the aisle to protect software developers who want to do the right thing," he added, while saying those who commit crimes and fraud should be held accountable.
Asked whether he is prepared for increased congressional oversight, Selig said, "Congress will do its job investigating where it needs to investigate," adding that he is happy to answer lawmakers' questions as he has already done before hearing committees several times.
Selig has also drawn criticism from Democrats over prediction markets, with 23 Democratic senators sending him a letter in February urging him to reverse the agency's greenlighting of the platforms. Selig argues prediction markets fall under federal regulation, and the CFTC has sued several states to defend what it views as its exclusive jurisdiction over event contracts, which it classifies as swaps. "We're going to fight this up to the Supreme Court if that's where it's going," Selig said. "Our view on the statute is that we have exclusive jurisdiction over these markets, and I will not allow for states to go bring lawsuits against our exchanges, claiming that they're unlicensed gambling."
