“The American people deserve clarity, certainty, and consumer protections in the crypto asset markets and the agency is committed to delivering this by incorporating crypto asset transactions into its uniform national market regulatory framework,” Selig said in the release. He said the rulemaking rests on the Commodity Exchange Act's purpose and “President Trump's directive to propose a federal crypto asset regulatory market structure using the CFTC's existing statutory authorities.”
The Defiant reported last month that the CFTC had filed the rulemaking with the White House at the prerule stage, and that Selig and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Paul S. Atkins had said they would write crypto rules without the CLARITY Act.
A Three-Rung Ladder
Selig laid out the agency's map of the market in remarks at the Fordham Law Blockchain Regulatory Symposium in New York on Monday, where he noted the views were his own and not necessarily the Commission's.
On the first rung are ordinary spot exchanges, subject to the CFTC's anti-fraud and anti-manipulation authority and otherwise regulated under state money transmission laws. On the second are exchanges that also let retail customers trade crypto on a margined, leveraged or financed basis, which Congress already requires to register. On the third are exchanges offering perps and other derivatives.
Monday's notice covers the second rung. Exchanges already registered as designated contract markets (DCMs), the CFTC's category for futures venues, could add CTX trading under tailored rules. A firm that wants to offer only CTXs could register as an ordinary DCM or pursue the new CAM subcategory.
“Only Congress has the authority to mandate that all crypto asset exchanges register with the Commission,” Selig said. He compared the choice to a bank picking a federal or state charter.
“Unlike the Clarity Act, these regulations wouldn't require crypto assets to trade on CFTC-registered platforms,” he wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed the agency published the same day, calling the action “just the beginning” and adding that “we haven't solved every problem.” A joint CFTC-SEC interpretation earlier this year classified a range of crypto assets, bitcoin and ether among them, as non-securities inside the CFTC's authority.
Keys In Your Wallet
The statute exempts a CTX from the on-exchange trading requirement when it results in actual delivery of the commodity within 28 days. The ANPRM takes a preliminary position on what that means for crypto.
“We propose to codify an interpretation of ‘actual delivery’ to clarify that delivery of a crypto asset to a user's external, non-custodial digital wallet within 28 days generally satisfies this exception,” Selig said.
The notice goes further on what possession means. Citing the Ninth Circuit's 2019 ruling in CFTC v. Monex Credit Co., which requires transfer of “some meaningful degree of possession or control,” the Commission writes that possession and control of a crypto asset “may require possession of the credentials (e.g., private key(s)) to the digital wallet address or account associated with such crypto asset.” Where an asset carries governance rights or staking participation, delivery may require “the capacity to participate in governance directly and on a disintermediated basis” or to stake “without being subject to fees charged by an intermediary.”
The reverse follows. A fully paid, open CTX that sits only on an exchange's internal book-entry, before delivery, stays subject to the Commodity Exchange Act and the framework that applies to futures contracts, the Commission writes.
The 2020 interpretive guidance on actual delivery for digital assets was withdrawn in December 2025, published at 90 FR 58149, to reassess it against changes in the technology and in response to the President's Working Group report. The Commission announced on Dec. 4, 2025 that CTXs would trade for the first time on a U.S. regulated exchange.
Listing And Reserves
Core Principle 3 requires a CAM to show a CTX is not readily susceptible to manipulation. Applying it to crypto, Selig said, exchanges “may have to consider the distribution method and concentration of crypto assets, lock-ups periods and vesting schedules, whether there are programmatic issuances or buybacks, and a flurry of other crypto asset-specific considerations related to manipulation risks.”
The CAM proposal also contemplates a proof-of-reserves obligation for exchanges that hold customer property in omnibus accounts, which Selig said “would have benefitted FTX's retail customers.” The ANPRM asks for comment on what proof-of-reserve practices it should weigh.
CTXs would have to be intermediated by a futures commission merchant (FCM), which would manage customer accounts and funds under the Commodity Exchange Act's disclosure, capital and customer-property segregation requirements. That intermediation would bring customer-facing activity on a CAM under the Bank Secrecy Act's anti-money laundering, customer identification and suspicious activity reporting rules.
Among other topics, the release says the notice seeks comment on preventing abusive practices under a uniform national regime, supplying crypto-specific context on practices the Commission has found to represent industry best practice since it began overseeing parts of these markets in 2014, and codifying the CAM subcategory. The document runs 108 pages.
Simply Shipped Code
Selig said the agency is developing a policy for software developers who publish code but do not solicit or take orders, control execution, or hold customer assets. He placed that work outside the scope of Monday's proposals.
“A person should not have to register as an introducing broker simply because that person shipped code,” he said.
He said he has directed staff to engage with developers and founders on how onchain venues function and where control sits in them.
One Sitting Commissioner
The ANPRM states it was approved by the Commission, subject to pre-publication technical corrections. The CFTC's commissioners page lists Selig, sworn in on Dec. 22, 2025, as the only sitting commissioner. The Commission has five seats, filled by presidential appointment.
The SEC proposed a separate crypto custody framework for advisers and funds on Oct. 1. The Defiant covered that rewrite when it entered White House review.
Little Market Reaction
Bitcoin fell 0.2% over 24 hours to $85,050.32 and holds a 2.7% seven-day gain, CoinGecko data shows. Ether fell 0.6% to $2,682.60 and is up 1.2% on the week, according to CoinGecko.
Market data as of 12:30 p.m. ET on Oct. 5, 2026.
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