CFTC Seeks Comments on Proposed Framework for Retail Crypto Asset Trading and Markets

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (Notice) on Oct. 5, 2026, seeking public comments addressing how CFTC might develop a framework for regulating retail crypto asset transactions offered or conducted on a leveraged, margined, or financed basis (retail crypto asset transactions offered on this basis, CTXs). The Notice also contemplates a purpose-built regulatory environment for exchanges and intermediaries engaging in CTX activities — crypto asset markets (CAMs).

The Notice has three main parts:

• History and background underlying the proposed rulemaking.
• Proposed Regulation CTX (Reg CTX), setting out the CFTC’s preliminary understandings and potential regulatory approaches for crypto asset transactions within the existing retail-commodity provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA). The Notice summarizes CFTC staff’s understanding regarding use of leverage or financing in the cash or spot crypto asset market, what constitutes “actual delivery,” and whether a transaction recorded only on an exchange’s internal records complies with the CEA.
• Proposed Regulation CAM (Reg CAM) proposes a corresponding special category of CFTC-registered exchange (described as a “tailored subcategory” of a Designated Contract Market, or DCM), on which CTXs may, but are not required to be, listed, with related rules covering intermediaries, customer assets, margin, clearing, and settlement.