CFTC sends crypto market rules to White House as CLARITY Act stalls in Senate

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has submitted a proposed regulatory action covering crypto asset transactions and markets to the White House, pushing forward with its own rulemaking days after the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act, the bill that would have set a federal framework for digital asset markets.

A filing with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs shows the action, titled "Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets," was received on Sept. 17 and sits at the prerule stage, the earliest step of the process, before anything has been formally proposed. The filing discloses no details of what the rules would contain. CoinDesk reported that it is unclear which crypto assets the action covers, what requirements exchanges would need to meet, what restrictions would apply, and how far the CFTC believes its authority stretches.

Under the standard process, the Office of Management and Budget reviews the draft and returns it to the CFTC, which would then vote to propose the text and open it for public comment. A further vote would be needed to make any final rule effective.

The submission follows Wednesday's Senate vote, in which the CLARITY Act failed to advance. A day after the vote, CFTC Chair Michael Selig posted on X that the agency was "locked in and ready to ship" rules for crypto markets using its existing statutory authority. SEC Chair Paul Atkins said separately that his agency would proceed "with or without legislation." Both regulators had signaled this posture before the vote: at an Aug. 20 meeting of the CFTC's Innovation Advisory Committee, Selig said he had directed staff to develop rules that would let both existing registrants and currently unregistered crypto exchanges operate as a type of designated contract market, a structure under which leveraged or margined crypto trading could be offered under CFTC oversight.

Interim relief on both sides

While the rulemaking begins its long route through the review process, both agencies have already acted. The CFTC on Friday published a no-action letter for providers of passive software, per CoinDesk, allowing them to connect users to regulated derivatives markets without registering as introducing brokers. The relief covers software that lets users view markets and submit orders directly to registered firms, including through crypto wallets. Providers may market specific contracts and earn transaction-based fees, but cannot hold customer assets, generate trading signals, or control order routing or execution. The no-action position carries conditions — risk disclosures, recordkeeping and compliance with marketing rules — and stays in place until the CFTC adopts rules on registration for software developers.

The SEC, on the same day, announced temporary exemptions for certain platforms facilitating onchain trading of tokenized securities. CoinDesk described the measure as an "innovation exemption" giving qualifying platforms a five-year path to offer onchain trading of certain tokenized stocks without registering as securities exchanges.

Industry figures had anticipated the agencies would move on their own. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong wrote on X on Sept. 15 that the SEC and CFTC had "the tools they need to create clear rules under existing authority" and that he expected them to begin working "in earnest."