The SEC and CFTC are moving their crypto coordination effort into public view. SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins and CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig are scheduled to host a joint event on January 27 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. ET at CFTC headquarters in Washington, D.C. The session will be open to the public and livestreamed online.
The stated focus is regulatory harmonization. U.S. crypto firms, developers, and trading venues have spent years dealing with overlapping or unclear lines between securities and commodities oversight, and the event is expected to address how the two agencies plan to define those boundaries in a more usable way. Selig said the CFTC and SEC are working together to carry out President Trump’s goal of making the United States the “Crypto Capital of the World.”
Agency leaders move the jurisdiction debate into a public forum
The meeting is framed as more than a technical explanation of existing rules. According to the material released ahead of the event, the discussion will also cover how innovation can grow under U.S. law while investor protections remain in place. The chairmen said market participants have been forced to operate within regulatory boundaries that are unclear in application and misaligned in design.
A fireside chat with Eleanor Terrett, co-founder of Crypto in America, is also on the agenda. That gives the market a direct look at how the two agency heads describe their broader digital asset strategy, at a time when jurisdiction is still one of the biggest unresolved issues in U.S. crypto policy.
Clarity Act draft draws attention for DeFi and developer protections
At the same time, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is gaining visibility in Washington. The bill is described as a key part of President Trump’s crypto agenda, though it remains controversial. According to cvrsxd, a vote could come before the November midterms, but the measure is currently stalled in the Senate Banking Committee.
The latest draft takes a more crypto-friendly and DeFi-friendly approach. Interlink Network Viet Nam said the proposal clarifies responsibilities between the SEC and CFTC, reduces direct oversight of DeFi, and includes protections for developers. Those points matter because they touch the compliance questions that have defined the U.S. market for years: who regulates token activity, how protocol-based systems should be treated, and how much exposure software developers should face.
Support for CFTC role also raises oversight concerns
The same draft has also triggered criticism. The report says it leans heavily toward the CFTC, prompting concerns that SEC oversight could be weakened and that loopholes may emerge. Coinbase and other industry players have pushed back, showing that the bill is not drawing uniform support even from within the crypto sector.
Trump has continued to call for quick passage and repeated that he wants to sign the legislation “very soon.” That puts added weight on the January 27 event, which may shape how the bill is viewed by the public and how much momentum it carries in the next stage of debate.
CFTC argues for clear crypto laws instead of rule-by-enforcement
The CFTC has also called for ending what it described as an “enforce first, explain later” approach. In its place, the agency is backing clearer laws built specifically for crypto markets. The policy direction is straightforward: establish legal certainty, keep innovation inside the United States and under U.S. law, and tie that framework to investor and consumer protection.
Stablecoins remain central to the wider policy discussion. The report also notes that Banca d’Italia sees bank-issued digital money, rather than stablecoins, as the foundation for monetary policy. For now, the immediate focus in Washington is the division of authority between the SEC and CFTC, and the January 27 joint appearance has become a key date for watching how that framework may take shape.