Overview
- The Commodity Futures Trading Commission submitted a draft package titled “Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets” to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on Sept. 17 as a pre-rule filing that begins executive review but does not make any rule final.
- The submission followed a close Senate procedural defeat for the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act that ended with a 49–50 vote and left key ethics and conflicts questions unresolved between Democrats and Republicans.
- CFTC Chairman Michael Selig directed staff to prepare the framework and is advancing the package despite being the commission’s only confirmed commissioner, which limits how many colleagues can vote on a formal proposal when it returns from OIRA.
- The SEC is pursuing parallel crypto rulemaking, including an innovation exemption for tokenized securities, and the CFTC also issued a targeted no‑action position on Sept. 17 to give certain software developers temporary relief from registration enforcement.
- Industry political spending has surged this cycle with roughly $206 million reported, and the agencies’ move to regulate by rule raises short‑term uncertainty because formal rules must still clear OIRA review, a commission vote, public comment and may face legal challenges.