The chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has instructed agency staff to begin drafting stand-alone cryptocurrency regulations in case Congress fails to pass the proposed Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, according to CoinDesk.

The contingency planning signals that the agency will use its existing Commodity Exchange Act authority to define rules for spot digital-asset trading, platform registration and intermediary oversight even if the legislation stalls in the Senate, where the bill has struggled to clear procedural hurdles.

What does the CFTC currently regulate in crypto?

The CFTC has long claimed oversight of bitcoin, ether and other tokens it determines do not meet the definition of securities. The agency supervises derivatives markets through registered futures exchanges, including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which lists bitcoin and ether futures contracts.

Spot trading of digital assets, by contrast, has remained outside direct federal supervision. The agency has pursued enforcement actions against platforms such as Binance, Coinbase and Kraken, often acting in coordination with the Securities and Exchange Commission under existing statutes.

Why does the Clarity Act matter?

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which moved through the House Financial Services Committee in 2024, would formally assign commodity-token oversight to the CFTC and security-token oversight to the SEC. Industry groups have argued that the current arrangement — in which two regulators assert competing claims over the same asset class — has pushed trading offshore and deterred institutional participation.

The bill also includes market-structure provisions on custody standards, registration paths for non-bank intermediaries and disclosure requirements that the agency cannot easily replicate through standalone rulemaking. Without legislation, the CFTC would lean on its Commodity Exchange Act authority, including Section 2(c)(2)(D), to extend oversight to leveraged retail commodity transactions and clarify which tokens it considers commodities.

What could standalone rulemaking cover?

A CFTC-only rulemaking track can move faster than legislation but typically produces narrower outcomes. The agency could formally designate additional tokens as commodities, expand registered-contract markets for spot crypto trading or revise retail leverage limits.

Such moves would carry legal exposure. Any CFTC designation that conflicts with prior SEC characterizations of the same token as a security would invite court challenges from issuers and intermediaries, and could raise constitutional questions about agency authority over assets Congress has not formally assigned to the CFTC.

Who is most affected?

The contingency track carries immediate consequences for spot crypto exchanges, custodians, derivatives platforms and stablecoin issuers operating in U.S. markets. Coinbase, Robinhood and Circle have repeatedly told regulators that jurisdictional ambiguity has delayed product launches and capital allocation.

Traditional banks and asset managers evaluating tokenized funds and crypto custody also monitor the jurisdictional split closely, since custody, disclosure and capital rules differ under SEC and CFTC oversight.

What comes next?

Agency staff are expected to begin circulating internal drafts before any public notice is issued. The Division of Market Oversight and the Division of Clearing and Risk would lead any rulemaking, which typically requires formal cost-benefit analysis and a public comment period before adoption.

Industry participants should watch Federal Register notices, CFTC open meetings and any joint SEC-CFTC statements in the coming months, as the agency transitions from contingency planning to formal drafting.