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CFTC proposes federal licensing for crypto exchanges tied to leverage
The proposal would let the CFTC treat many retail crypto trades with leverage, margin, or financing as futures, with a 60-day public comment period after publication in the Federal Register.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is seeking public comment on a new framework that would place crypto exchanges under federal oversight, using leverage as the trigger for regulation. Decrypt reports the CFTC published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking, an early step that collects input before formal rules are drafted.
Under the plan, the agency would create two linked regulatory tracks, Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions, or Regulation CTX, and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets, or Regulation CAM. Decrypt says the public will have 60 days to submit comments once the notice appears in the Federal Register.
The approach is built on a 2010 Dodd-Frank provision that requires retail commodity trades offered with leverage, margin, or financing to occur on a CFTC-registered exchange, treated as if they were futures. Decrypt adds that the CFTC reads this requirement broadly, suggesting that simply offering leverage, even via onboarding materials or terms of service, could bring fully paid crypto trades under CFTC oversight if the purchased crypto sits on the exchange's internal platform.