CFTC seeks comment on crypto asset trading rules

• Comments are due within 60 days of the ANPRM’s publication in the Federal Register.
• The agency wants input on a new designated contract market subcategory called a “crypto asset market.”
• No proposed rule text, asset list or effective date for any final regulation is included.

Section 2(c)(2)(D) already gives the CFTC anti-fraud and anti-manipulation authority over leveraged, margined or financed retail crypto trades that aren’t actually delivered to the buyer. The ANPRM asks how to build a full rulebook around that existing authority rather than handling disputes case by case.

Chairman Michael S. Selig tied the move to the 2022 collapse of FTX, the exchange whose failure triggered years of congressional scrutiny of crypto market structure. The release names FTX only in Selig’s quoted statement, not in the operative rule language.

Selig Invokes FTX in Push for Prevention

Selig’s statement is the only sourced commentary in the release. He frames the ANPRM as carrying out a directive from President Trump to propose a federal crypto market structure using the CFTC’s existing statutory authority, rather than waiting on new legislation.

“Under my leadership, the Commission will take every necessary step to establish regulations that are designed to prevent, rather than only prosecute after the fact, fraudulent schemes such as FTX.”

Michael S. Selig, CFTC Chairman, in the CFTC release

The statement does not say what “prevent” means in rule terms, whether through capital requirements, custody standards, disclosure mandates or something else. That detail is left to the comment process and any eventual proposed rule.

Three Areas Up for Comment

The release lists three things the Commission wants feedback on: preventing abusive trading practices in crypto markets and CTXs under one national regime; giving market participants context on practices the CFTC has found, from experience regulating crypto since 2014, to represent industry best practice for CTX compliance; and codifying a new registration subcategory of designated contract market, called a “crypto asset market,” built specifically for CTXs.

That third item matters most for exchanges. A dedicated crypto asset market DCM category would sit alongside existing designated contract markets like CME or ICE Futures, but tailored to spot and margined crypto products instead of traditional futures contracts.

Who Has to Respond, and By When

Exchanges offering margined or financed retail crypto trading, custodians, and any platform structuring products that could qualify as CTXs under section 2(c)(2)(D) are the natural respondents. Comments go to Regulations.gov and will be posted publicly once submitted.

The 60-day clock starts from Federal Register publication, not from the October 5 release date, so the exact deadline is not yet fixed in the document itself.

What Changes in Practice

Nothing changes today. An ANPRM is a request for input, not a rule, and the CFTC has not proposed specific text, thresholds or a compliance date for any platform.

The CFTC’s prior approach relied on enforcement actions and interpretive guidance to police crypto spot and margin trading under 2(c)(2)(D), case by case, since at least 2014. This ANPRM is the agency’s attempt to replace that ad hoc approach with codified rules, built on the same statutory hook it has used all along rather than new authority from Congress.

The CCS read. We read this as the CFTC committing to build crypto rules on 2(c)(2)(D) instead of waiting for market-structure legislation, which means platforms running margined retail crypto trading should draft comments now, before the Commission locks in a DCM subcategory that defines who can operate one.

Comments close 60 days after the ANPRM’s Federal Register publication, a date not yet set in the release; watch the Federal Register for that posting to start the clock.