Staff at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued a no-action position on Sept. 17 for firms that provide "passive software." For firms that satisfy the stated conditions, staff said it will not recommend that the Commission bring enforcement action for failing to register as an introducing broker. The document appeared the same day as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s exemption tied to tokenized stocks, as both agencies moved under existing authority after the CLARITY Act stalled in the Senate.
The relief covers introducing broker registration, and only within the software’s provision and marketing
According to CFTC release No. 9300-26, the position came from the Market Participants Division. The document says the division "will not recommend that the Commission take an enforcement action" against those firms or their associated persons for not registering.
An introducing broker is a registered category in the futures market. In simple terms, it solicits or accepts orders for futures or options, but does not receive customer funds. In the past, software providers whose products allowed users to place trades could fall within that definition, yet whether registration was required had remained unclear.
The no-action position draws two lines. First, it applies to software that enables users to trade with registered futures commission merchants, introducing brokers, and designated contract markets. Second, the relief "applies only to the extent of providing and marketing software to facilitate trading." The release also says the position includes certain specific conditions, but those conditions were not detailed in the press release.
The document addresses passive software, not crypto software specifically
The CFTC release uses the term "passive software providers" in both its headline and body, and it does not limit the scope to the crypto sector. Some reports described the move as a pathway opened specifically for crypto applications, but the wording in the document is broader than that. A crypto trading interface would be only one possible type of software that could fit.
The press release also does not define what "passive" means. It describes the concept by function instead, referring to tools that facilitate trading between users and registered entities. The actual standard will depend on the conditions attached to the staff letter itself.
SEC acted on the same day with tokenized stock relief
On the same day, the SEC released an innovation exemption for tokenized NMS stocks, giving trading venues for tokenized securities a five-year conditional exemption. Uniswap’s founder, for his part, highlighted Commissioner Hester Peirce’s comments on permissionless DeFi.
What links the two actions is that neither came from Congress. Both were steps taken by regulators under the current legal framework through exemptions or decisions not to pursue enforcement. After the CLARITY Act failed to clear the 60-vote threshold in the Senate on Sept. 16, losing 49 to 50, the two agency chairs said they would keep moving under existing law. These documents were concrete examples of that approach.
A no-action position is not the same as a rule
The effect of this no-action position is different from a regulation. It reflects a staff division’s statement that it will not recommend enforcement. It is not a formal Commission rule, and it does not bind courts or other agencies. If the framework is to become a stable regime, it would still need to go through rulemaking.