Overview
- On Monday the CFTC took formal rulemaking steps by filing a prerule notice with OIRA and publishing an advance notice that it is developing Regulation CTX and Regulation CAM to cover leveraged, margined or financed crypto retail trades.
- The proposals would create a new, voluntary registration called a crypto asset market (CAM) that lets qualifying exchanges operate under uniform federal rules instead of relying only on state money-transmitter licenses.
- Under the framework the agency seeks comment on specific venue safeguards such as proof-of-reserves checks, bans on products prone to manipulation, and a requirement that customer trades be intermediated by registered futures commission merchants.
- The rules explicitly exclude ordinary spot retail purchases from the CFTC’s new rulemaking scope while preserving the agency’s anti-fraud and anti-manipulation powers, a gap that reflects Congress’s failure to pass the CLARITY Act on September 15.
- The effort is at an early administrative stage with OIRA review and a 60-day public comment period to follow before any proposed rule text appears, making the approach faster than new legislation but narrower and potentially subject to legal challenge and further congressional action.