The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has started drafting crypto market rules without waiting for Congress. On Thursday, the agency filed Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the White House review office that clears federal regulations before publication.
The filing appears on the federal regulatory review docket under RIN 3038-AF80, with a received date of Sept. 17. It is marked as a Dodd-Frank action, classified as not economically significant, and listed at the prerule stage.
What happens next in the rulemaking process
After OIRA completes its review, the draft goes back to the CFTC for a commission vote and a public comment period. A second vote is required before the rules can take effect. That process, as described in the report, runs on a timeline measured in quarters.
The step landed shortly after the Clarity Act failed to advance in the Senate last week, with U.S. regulators appearing to move quickly to offer the crypto industry more regulatory clarity.
Clarity Act failed in the Senate
The Clarity Act would have divided oversight of digital assets between the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The bill failed a Senate procedural vote on Tuesday after key Democratic negotiators pointed to ethics concerns tied to President Donald Trump’s crypto holdings.
Seven of those Democrats later said they still intended to pass market structure legislation. The industry, according to the report, dismissed that statement as “midterm positioning.”
CFTC and SEC both acted on Thursday
The CFTC also published a no-action position on Thursday for software developers. It said the agency would not recommend enforcement against passive software providers that connect users to registered derivatives firms, as long as those providers do not hold customer assets or route orders.
The SEC, on the same day, issued its innovation exemption. The measure gives qualifying platforms a five-year path to offer onchain trading in certain tokenized stocks without registering as securities exchanges.
The SEC’s broader Regulation Crypto Assets proposal remains open for comment until Oct. 20.
Michael Selig had already signaled the agency’s direction
CFTC Chair Michael Selig had indicated in an August speech that the agency would act if the Clarity Act fell through. He said he had directed staff to explore how to codify a CFTC market structure for crypto assets using the commission’s existing authorities.
After Tuesday’s vote, Selig wrote on X that the agency was “locked in and ready to ship its rules.”