CFTC Staff Says Futures Brokers May Put Customer Funds Into Eligible Tokenized Assets, Keep Records Onchain

Staff at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Thursday that futures brokers and clearinghouses under the agency’s oversight may invest customer money in tokenized versions of assets they are already permitted to hold, as long as several conditions are met. The update came through four new entries added by the CFTC’s divisions of Market Participants, Market Oversight, and Clearing and Risk to a crypto FAQ first published on March 20. Under the new guidance, a tokenized investment can qualify if the underlying asset is already on the permitted list, the token carries the same or functionally equivalent legal and economic rights as the traditional form, the position complies with liquidity, concentration, and maturity limits, and the tokens are held at an acceptable depository. Staff also said firms may create and maintain required records on a blockchain under existing recordkeeping rules, without keeping offchain copies, if they fully satisfy the regulations. The document adds that firms using public permissionless blockchains should be able to produce records for CFTC inspection even if the network or block explorer is unavailable. The FAQ reflects staff views rather than binding rules.