CFTC's Selig Warns AI Agents Could Trade Crypto Without Humans, Floats 'Know-Your-Agent' Rules

The top U.S. derivatives regulator on Wednesday sketched out a near future in which software agents, not people, hunt for trading opportunities and execute them in crypto markets, and said the agency's rulebook may need a new identity-check regime to keep up.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Michael Selig told an audience at the agency's inaugural Frontier Forum in Washington that the convergence of advanced machine intelligence, crypto and modern financial plumbing could reshape markets. He said such systems could widen access to sophisticated financial tools, sharpen how businesses manage risk and spawn new kinds of economic activity.

Selig, who asked that the technology be called "superintelligence" or SI rather than artificial intelligence, compared its significance to the printing press, the steam engine and the internet. He said it promises to accelerate a decades-long drift toward trading systems that operate with less and less human input.

The chairman framed the regulatory problem as a series of open questions rather than a policy proposal. If an SI agent spots a trade and carries it out for a user, he asked, does the developer of that agent have to register with the CFTC? And who bears responsibility if the agent goes rogue?