Overview
- Approved futures commission merchants can accept BTC, ETH and USDC as customer margin under tightened segregation, custody, valuation and weekly disclosures during an initial three-month review period.
- The agency withdrew 2020 Staff Advisory 20-34 and issued technology-neutral guidance detailing how tokenized Treasuries and money‑market funds can meet enforceability, custody and haircut standards.
- Limited no‑action relief allows qualified firms to hold certain digital assets in segregated customer accounts provided they satisfy risk management and capital requirements.
- Acting Chair Caroline Pham said only CFTC‑registered intermediaries may participate and collateral must be in kind with the contract’s asset, with enhanced monitoring and incident notifications.
- Staff will evaluate operational resilience during the monitoring window and may consider additional eligible assets afterward, a shift industry leaders say could enable faster, 24/7 margin settlement.