CFTC opens a 60-day comment window on crypto rules — but the spot-market hole it can't fill stays open

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on October 5 published an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (release 9307-26) laying out its intent to build what Chairman Michael S. Selig called a "comprehensive regulatory framework" for crypto trading that involves leverage, margin or financing. The notice opens a 60-day public comment period that begins once the ANPRM is published in the Federal Register, with submissions to be posted on Regulations.gov.

Two labels anchor the effort. In remarks prepared for Fordham Law's annual Blockchain Regulatory Symposium, Selig named them Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions ("Regulation CTX") and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets ("Regulation CAM"). Per the CFTC's own notice, the rulemaking hangs on section 2(c)(2)(D) of the Commodity Exchange Act — the retail commodity-transaction provisions added by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act — and governs what the agency abbreviates as "CTXs": retail crypto transactions involving leverage, margin or financing.

What the two tracks actually do

According to CFTC officials cited by CoinDesk, one track regulates the transactions themselves and the other regulates the firms hosting them. The firm-facing track would create a new registration category, crypto asset markets (CAMs) — described in the CFTC notice as a purpose-built subcategory of the existing designated contract market (DCM) registration. CoinDesk reports this new status would be narrower than full DCM registration; firms wanting to offer futures, swaps and options would still need the full DCM stamp. Several major platforms already hold DCM status, including Coinbase, Crypto.com and Bitnomial, along with prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket, per CoinDesk.

The mechanics attach familiar commodity-market obligations. Per CoinDesk, CAM registrants would face standards already imposed on other registrants: a prohibition on listing products vulnerable to manipulation, and "proof-of-reserves" requirements for exchanges holding customer assets in omnibus accounts. Trading that meets the Regulation CTX definition would require futures commission merchants (FCMs) to act as intermediaries, pulling in Bank Secrecy Act anti-money-laundering safeguards. The agency's existing "actual delivery" exemption would continue to exempt transactions involving a real transfer of assets in under 28 days, CoinDesk reports.

Selig also used the Fordham speech to float protections for developers who write code but don't solicit orders or hold customer funds: "A person should not have to register as an introducing broker simply because that person shipped code," he said, per CoinDesk.

The gap that remains

The limit is structural. The CFTC has no authority over spot markets — the direct buying and selling of crypto at current prices without leverage or margin, which covers the bulk of trading in tokens like bitcoin and ether. CoinDesk notes the agency can still police fraud and manipulation in spot markets, but it cannot replace state money-transmission regimes as the governing rules for direct trading. CFTC officials told CoinDesk they don't yet know how large the residual spot market will be, and said they'll learn more during the comment period — while suggesting consumers may gravitate to the federally regulated venues.

This is the hole that legislation was supposed to close. CoinDesk reports the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which stalled in the Senate last month, was aimed squarely at the spot-market gap. With that bill stuck, the CFTC and the SEC have been advancing crypto policy administratively. The SEC moved first — including a rule late last week on how investment firms should custody crypto assets, plus an exemption clearing a path for securities tokenization — and the two agencies earlier this year issued a joint "token taxonomy" dividing assets between their jurisdictions, per CoinDesk.

Key facts

• Action: Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, CFTC release 9307-26, published October 5, 2026 (CFTC).
• Scope: Retail crypto transactions involving leverage, margin or financing ("CTXs") under CEA section 2(c)(2)(D) (CFTC).
• Two frameworks: Regulation CTX (transactions) and Regulation CAM (venues), per Selig's Fordham remarks (CoinDesk).
• New registration: CAM, a narrower subcategory of DCM registration (CFTC; CoinDesk).
• Obligations: FCM intermediation with BSA/AML coverage; proof-of-reserves for omnibus accounts; ban on manipulable products; "actual delivery" exemption for transfers under 28 days (CoinDesk).
• Comment period: 60 days from Federal Register publication (CFTC).
• Spot gap: CFTC lacks spot-market authority beyond fraud and manipulation; state money-transmission rules still govern direct trading (CoinDesk).
• Leadership: Selig has been the CFTC's sole commissioner for nearly a year; the SEC has only Chairman Paul Atkins and Commissioner Mark Uyeda (CoinDesk).
• Market reference: CoinDesk quoted bitcoin at $85,212.44 and ether at $2,696.49 on October 5.

The real-world read

Start with what this is — and isn't. The CFTC's own document is an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: a request for comment on the agency's intent to propose rules. The notice says plainly the Commission "intends to use the information and comments received to inform potential future agency action, such as a rulemaking." That is a step before a proposed rule, which is itself a step before a final one. CoinDesk's framing — the CFTC "is proposing a pair of rules" — compresses that timeline. No binding rule exists yet; a 60-day comment window just opened on whether to write one.

The durability question looms over all of it. Selig has run the CFTC alone for nearly a year, and CoinDesk notes he's been "taking unilateral actions akin to agencies established with a single director." A framework built by a sole commissioner, on existing authority, explicitly because Congress hasn't acted, is a framework a future Commission or court can unwind. Selig's own words underline the workaround: these rules would use "the same statutory authorities that the prior administration instead utilized to regulate by enforcement." The tool is the same; the posture is reversed.

Note the political packaging in the CFTC's release. "Ensure America remains the crypto capital of the world" and the citation of "President Trump's directive" are policy marketing, not regulatory substance — read past them to the mechanics. The FTX invocation ("prevent, rather than only prosecute after the fact") is rhetorically tidy, but FTX was an offshore, largely unregistered spot-and-leverage operation; nothing in this notice establishes that a CAM regime would have caught it, and the agency offers no such analysis.

Then the thing left conspicuously unsaid: how big the ungoverned spot market stays. Officials admitted to CoinDesk they don't know, and their suggestion that consumers "may prefer" federally regulated venues is a hope, not a finding. For most ordinary buying and selling of bitcoin and ether, the governing rules remain a patchwork of state money-transmitter licenses — exactly the status quo this was meant to fix.

One housekeeping flag: CoinDesk's article page carried a sponsored "Definitive Stablecoin Landscape Series" promoting Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin. That is marketing content adjacent to the reporting and formed no part of this story.

Opinion, and whose

• CFTC / Chairman Selig: that the ANPRM is "a critical step" toward "clarity, certainty, and consumer protections," and that consumers may prefer federally regulated venues (CFTC release; CoinDesk). These are the agency's characterizations of its own action.
• CoinDesk's analysis: that the effort "may continue to leave a significant gap" because of the CFTC's missing spot-market authority — the outlet's read, not an agency statement.
• Unresolved by anyone on the record: the eventual scale of the unregulated spot market, which officials said they cannot estimate until after the comment period.

Sources

• CFTC, Press Release 9307-26 (October 5, 2026) — primary source; the ANPRM announcement, scope, Selig's quoted statement, and the 60-day comment timeline. The release contains promotional policy language ("crypto capital of the world," the Trump directive) treated here as the agency's own framing.
• CoinDesk, "U.S. CFTC joins SEC in proposing crypto regulations, though spot-market gap lingers" (October 5, 2026) — secondary reporting; the Regulation CTX/CAM detail from Selig's Fordham remarks, the CAM-versus-DCM distinction, compliance mechanics, the spot-market gap, the stalled Clarity Act, SEC context, and commissioner composition. The page also hosted a sponsored RLUSD stablecoin report, which is marketing and was not used.

This is news, not financial advice.