Staff at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Thursday that futures brokers and clearinghouses regulated by the agency may invest customer funds in tokenized versions of assets they are already allowed to buy, and that registered firms may keep required records on a blockchain.
The update came from three CFTC divisions — Market Participants, Market Oversight, and Clearing and Risk — which added four new entries to a set of frequently asked questions on crypto assets first published on March 20.
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said in a statement, 「I’m pleased to see staff update these frequently asked questions consistent with the agency’s ongoing efforts to provide regulatory clarity for the crypto industry.」
Tokenized versions of permitted assets can qualify
CFTC Regulation 1.25 limits how futures commission merchants, or FCMs, and derivatives clearing organizations, or DCOs, may invest customer money, restricting them to a list of permitted investments.
Under the new answer, a tokenized form of one of those investments may count if four conditions are met:
- the underlying asset is itself a permitted investment;
- the token gives holders legal and economic rights that are the same as, or functionally equivalent to, those of the traditional version;
- the holding complies with the rule’s liquidity, concentration, and maturity limits; and
- the tokens are held with an acceptable depository.
For tokenized government money market funds, staff said they would expect the firm to obtain a written acknowledgment letter from the fund’s custodian.
Payment stablecoins still do not qualify. An earlier answer in the same document says FCMs may not invest customer funds in payment stablecoins because the list of permitted investments has not changed.
Required records may be maintained onchain
The other three new FAQ entries deal with recordkeeping. Staff said Regulation 1.31, the CFTC’s general recordkeeping rule, and Regulation 45.2, which governs swap data records, are technology-neutral.
A firm may create and keep required records onchain so long as it fully complies with those rules. Staff also said they would not object if a firm chose not to maintain offchain copies.
The FAQ adds that firms using a public, permissionless blockchain should have systems that allow them to produce records for CFTC inspection even if the network or its block explorer is unavailable.
Context for the update
The document says questions around recordkeeping arose in responses to a June 16 CFTC request for information tied to Executive Order 14405. It cites comments from dYdX Labs and two industry groups, the Blockchain Association and the Solana Policy Institute.
The answers reflect staff views and are not binding rules.
The update builds on staff letters issued in December 2025 that opened the door to bitcoin, ether, and payment stablecoins being used as margin collateral.
On Sept. 16, Selig pledged to write crypto rules under the agency’s existing authority after the Clarity Act stalled in the Senate.