The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is pressing forward with crypto-specific rulemaking using its existing statutory authority after the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act stalled in the Senate, Law.com reported. The agency is pursuing regulations on spot digital asset trading, derivatives margin and intermediary registration under powers granted by the Commodity Exchange Act.

The shift reflects the commission's determination to act without a comprehensive market-structure mandate from Congress. The CFTC's interim agenda will cover entities that have operated in the U.S. without direct federal registration, including offshore exchanges serving American customers and spot-trading platforms that have grown alongside retail demand for bitcoin and ether.

What happened to the Clarity Act?

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act would have codified the division of crypto oversight between the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission. It passed the House in 2024 but failed to advance in the Senate earlier this year after a procedural vote.

Industry groups had lobbied heavily for the bill, which would have created a tailored registration regime for digital asset intermediaries and addressed key questions on decentralized finance protocols, stablecoins and staking services.

Its collapse leaves the legislative track effectively closed for the remainder of the congressional session. Lawmakers may revisit market structure next year, but the CFTC has indicated it will not wait.

What is the CFTC planning?

The commission's rulemaking agenda includes:

• Registration pathways for digital asset exchanges under CFTC oversight
• Customer protection and asset segregation standards for crypto custodians
• Margin and capital requirements for leveraged digital asset products
• Surveillance and reporting rules for spot markets in bitcoin and ether

The agency has classified bitcoin and ether as commodities under the CEA since at least 2018. The new rules would extend the commission's existing derivatives-supervision framework to firms outside the current registration perimeter and clarify how existing obligations apply to spot trading.

What does this mean for industry?

Without the Clarity Act, the regulatory perimeter for digital assets will be drawn through agency rulemaking and enforcement rather than through legislation. Industry participants had warned that a commission-led approach could produce inconsistent outcomes for protocols and token structures that do not map cleanly onto either the securities or commodities categories.

The SEC has continued enforcement actions against digital asset platforms it considers to be operating as unregistered securities exchanges. With the CFTC asserting its own jurisdiction, intermediaries may face overlapping obligations depending on how each token is characterized. Compliance teams at major exchanges have been building parallel supervisory frameworks in anticipation.

What comes next?

The CFTC has not published a formal timeline for the rulemakings, though the agency has signaled it intends to move quickly.

Industry counsel will scrutinize the proposed rules for preemption questions, consistency with prior guidance and the treatment of non-custodial software developers.

The commission's interim framework could serve as a foundation for future legislation, or create friction that complicates any later statutory effort. For now, the CFTC is the principal venue for institutional clarity on U.S. digital commodity regulation.