The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is proposing two new regulatory frameworks for cryptocurrency transactions involving leverage, margin or financing, bringing parts of the digital-asset market under a clearer federal oversight structure.
The proposals would create a new category of CFTC-regulated platforms called crypto asset markets, or CAMs. However, the initiative would not fully resolve the regulatory status of ordinary spot-market trading, where cryptocurrencies are bought and sold directly without borrowed funds or margin. According to CoinDesk, the proposals are intended to address uncertainty that has persisted after Congress failed to complete a broader U.S. crypto market-structure law.
Proposed rules target financed crypto activity
The CFTC’s plan has two linked components. One would establish rules for crypto transactions covered by Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions, or Regulation CTX. The other would govern the exchanges and firms handling those transactions through Regulation Crypto Asset Markets, or Regulation CAM.
The agency says the framework would cover crypto activity involving leverage, margin or financing. In practical terms, trades in which customers use borrowed money to increase the size of a position would fall within the CFTC’s regulatory remit. The rules are being proposed under provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act relating to retail trading, including provisions added by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reforms.
CAMs would be a narrower form of the CFTC’s existing designated contract market, or DCM, registration. DCMs are federally regulated exchanges. Several major crypto platforms already hold DCM registration, including Coinbase, Crypto.com and Bitnomial, while prediction-market operators Kalshi and Polymarket are also listed among registered DCMs.
The new CAM status would give exchanges a more tailored route for offering covered crypto products. Platforms seeking to list futures, swaps or options would still need DCM registration, according to the proposal’s outline.
The proposed requirements would include standards already applied to other regulated registrants. These include restrictions on listing products that may be vulnerable to manipulation and proof-of-reserves requirements for exchanges holding customer assets in omnibus accounts. Transactions falling under the CTX rules would also require futures commission merchants to serve as intermediaries, bringing Bank Secrecy Act anti-money-laundering safeguards into the process.
The CFTC also said its existing “actual delivery” exemption would apply to transactions involving the real transfer of assets within 28 days or less. Separately, Chairman Mike Selig said the agency is considering protections for software developers who create crypto products but do not solicit orders, accept trades or hold customer funds. His position, as described in prepared remarks, was that writing and delivering code should not alone require a person to register as an introducing broker.
Spot-market authority remains unresolved
The proposals leave a significant limitation in place: the CFTC does not have broad authority over the direct spot market. Spot trading refers to the straightforward purchase and sale of crypto at current market prices, with the asset changing hands in its original form and without leverage or margin.
That gap affects a large part of the market, including ordinary transactions in bitcoin and ether. The CFTC can police fraud and manipulation in spot markets, but the new rules would not replace state money-transmission regulations that currently govern much of this direct activity.
CFTC officials said the eventual size of the remaining spot-market area is not yet clear. They plan to use a 60-day public-comment period to gather views from the industry and other participants. Officials also suggested that customers may favor platforms operating in the federally regulated segment when more complex products are involved.
The unresolved spot-market question was central to the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which stalled in the U.S. Senate the previous month. Without a new law from Congress, the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission have been advancing separate policies within their existing authority.
CFTC joins SEC in broader regulatory push
The SEC has moved faster on several crypto-related measures, including a proposal concerning how investment firms should safeguard digital assets and an exemption intended to facilitate securities tokenization. The CFTC’s action brings the derivatives regulator closer to the SEC’s recent efforts, while officials indicated that additional work may follow.
The two agencies earlier worked together on a token taxonomy designed to clarify which digital assets could fall under SEC authority and which could come under the CFTC. The new CFTC proposals develop the derivatives agency’s side of that division.
Both commissions currently have only Republican members. The SEC is led by Chairman Paul Atkins and Commissioner Mark Uyeda, while Selig has been the CFTC’s sole commissioner for nearly a year. The source material said President Donald Trump had not nominated replacements for the vacant seats on either five-member commission.
The proposals are not final rules. They will first go through public comment, leaving the details and eventual scope of the framework subject to possible changes.
Moneyiar market picture
Moneyiar data at 10:08-10:09 on October 7, 2026, showed the following prices and moves:
- Ontology (ONT): $0.0576844502, down 4.91% over 24 hours and 0.83% over seven days.
- Notcoin (NOT): $0.0004593815, down 6.90% over 24 hours and 7.96% over seven days.
- Ronin (RON): $0.0639414969, down 4.29% over 24 hours and 0.02% over seven days.
- Propy (PRO): $0.3611627469, down 3.14% over 24 hours but up 1.68% over seven days.
These figures describe the selected assets’ market performance at the stated times and do not determine the outcome of the CFTC’s regulatory process.
