CFTC Chair Puts Staff on Notice to Build Crypto Rules If Clarity Act Fails

Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Mike Selig said Thursday that if Congress fails to deliver the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, his agency is already working on alternative regulations, telling the inaugural meeting of the Innovation Advisory Committee that it would not sit idle.

A fallback if Congress stalls

“If Clarity continues to stall because of Democrat obstruction, the CFTC will utilize its existing authorities to begin establishing a regime for crypto asset markets,” Selig said. He said he has directed staff to explore rules to codify a CFTC market structure for crypto assets, in a move he framed as heeding President Donald Trump’s call to codify a “future-proof” digital asset market structure.

The agency’s sister regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, proposed its own major crypto rule this week, known as Regulation Crypto Assets, to allow startups to raise funds with fewer regulatory hurdles. The two agencies had previously issued a joint policy stance defining the different kinds of digital assets.

Political stakes

The advancement of the Clarity Act still depends on action in the U.S. Senate, where it needs 60 votes in a final three-week window. One of the biggest outstanding issues is whether the White House will agree to a revised ethics provision presented by a bipartisan pair of Senators, Ruben Gallego and Thom Tillis. Selig warned that passing the bill was the surest way to prevent “another Gary Gensler from running a rogue campaign of lawfare” against the industry.