Overview
- The CFTC on Oct. 5 published an advance notice for two linked rules, Regulation CTX and Regulation CAM, and opened a 60-day public comment period to gather industry input.
- The rules would cover retail crypto transactions that use leverage, margin, or financing and treat those trades as subject to CFTC oversight unless customers receive “actual delivery” of tokens.
- Regulation CAM would create a voluntary new registration called a crypto asset market that would require futures commission merchant intermediation and contemplate proof-of-reserves and listing controls to limit manipulation risks.
- Exchanges would choose whether to opt in for the right to offer leveraged products, while ordinary spot trading would remain largely governed by state money-transmitter rules because the CFTC cannot compel universal registration without Congress.
- Key technical and legal details remain unresolved, including how to define actual delivery, leverage limits, reserve verification and the role of FCMs, and the proposals could reshape where retail leverage is offered and how customer assets are held.