CFTC Opens Crypto Rulemaking as FinCEN Pulls Wallet Rules

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has opened a formal consultation on a new federal framework for certain leveraged retail crypto transactions, adding another regulatory track as Congress struggles to advance comprehensive market-structure legislation. According to the CFTC’s official October 5 ANPRM, the agency is considering dedicated rules for crypto asset transactions, or CTXs, together with a specialized Crypto Asset Market registration category. No final rules have yet been proposed or adopted.

The initiative follows the Senate’s September 15 failure to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the CLARITY Act, which fell short in a 49-50 vote. That procedural defeat prevented immediate consideration of the legislation but did not constitute final rejection of the bill. The stalled congressional process has increased the importance of the agency-led regulatory path that the CFTC had already been developing. The earlier shift toward that approach was outlined when the CFTC moved ahead after the CLARITY setback.

CTX and CAM Remain Pre-Rulemaking Concepts

Regulation CTX would focus on crypto transactions falling under Section 2(c)(2)(D) of the Commodity Exchange Act, covering certain retail commodity transactions conducted on a leveraged, margined or financed basis. The CFTC is also considering codifying CAM as a purpose-built subcategory of Designated Contract Market registration for those transactions. The consultation is therefore narrower than creating comprehensive CFTC jurisdiction over every retail spot crypto trade.

Chairman Michael Selig has also emphasized that the contemplated federal route would be optional. Crypto firms could choose between applicable state licensing structures and federal CFTC registration depending on their products, while Congress alone could require all crypto exchanges to register with the Commission. That makes CAM a potential registration pathway rather than a mandatory federal charter for the entire crypto market. The distinction fits with the agency’s recent effort to apply existing rules to areas such as tokenized funds and blockchain-based records without treating every digital-asset activity identically.

There is also no January 18, 2027 effective date for CTX or CAM. The CFTC says comments will remain open for 60 days after Federal Register publication and will inform possible future rulemaking. Any binding framework would require additional administrative steps before becoming effective. January 18 instead appears in federal materials as a potential effective date for the GENIUS Act stablecoin regime.

FinCEN and SEC Move on Separate Crypto Rules

FinCEN simultaneously withdrew two longstanding digital-asset proposals. One dated to 2020 and would have imposed recordkeeping, identity-verification and reporting requirements for certain transactions involving unhosted wallets. The other, proposed in 2023, would have treated international convertible-virtual-currency mixing as a class of transactions of primary money-laundering concern. FinCEN withdrew both proposals rather than converting either into a final reporting requirement.

The SEC moved in a different direction on leveraged investment products. On October 2, it approved Cboe BZX’s rule change allowing the exchange to list 3x Gold, Silver, Bitcoin, Ether, Crude Oil and Natural Gas products from VS Trust. The Bitcoin and Ether vehicles target three times the daily performance of futures-based benchmarks, making them leveraged commodity products rather than 3x spot crypto ETFs.

Together, the actions show federal crypto policy developing through several distinct statutory channels rather than one synchronized framework. Congress still has not enacted the broader jurisdictional structure contemplated by the CLARITY Act after its failed Senate procedural vote, while regulators are moving independently within their existing authority. The immediate change is therefore not a unified new U.S. crypto regime, but a widening set of agency-specific rules, withdrawals and market-access decisions operating in parallel.