Overview
- Registered clearing intermediaries may accept BTC, ETH and USDC as margin during an initial three-month phase, with firms filing weekly holdings and incident reports.
- The CFTC withdrew its 2020 staff advisory restricting virtual currencies in customer accounts, citing market evolution and the GENIUS Act.
- Technology-neutral guidance applies existing enforceability, custody, valuation and risk controls to tokenized instruments, including Treasuries and money market assets.
- Acting Chair Caroline Pham said the initiative seeks to bring crypto activity back under U.S. oversight rather than leaving it to offshore venues.
- Executives at Coinbase, Circle, Crypto.com and Ripple praised the clarity, saying tokenized collateral can improve capital efficiency and enable 24/7 settlement.