Acting CFTC Chair Caroline Pham said the decision was meant to get people to trade on US exchanges instead of offshore ones that don’t have fundamental protections. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has said that spot cryptocurrency products can trade on federally regulated futures exchanges.
Acting CFTC Chair Caroline Pham said in a notice on Thursday that the decision was in response to US President Donald Trump’s policy orders. She also said that the permission came after the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets made suggestions, the US Securities and Exchange Commission became involved, and the CFTC’s “Crypto Sprint” project had talks.
Pham added, “For the first time ever, spot crypto can trade on CFTC-registered exchanges that have been the gold standard for almost a hundred years, with the customer protections and market integrity that Americans deserve.”
Spot crypto trading gains regulatory approval
Pham became acting chair of the CFTC in January when Trump took office. He is anticipated to stand aside once the US Senate approves a new chair. Michael Selig, an SEC executive who Trump chose to lead the CFTC, is likely to go to the Senate floor for a vote soon after leaving committee.
Bitnomial is one of the derivatives exchanges that is likely to be the first to start trading. It is set to launch next week. The CFTC has given the exchange the go-ahead to run as a Designated Contract Market, which Coinbase also got in 2020.
Senate oversight and market structure developments
The Senate is also looking at Selig’s nomination, and the CFTC has four open commissioner positions in its leadership. Trump had not yet named any possible replacements for the regulator as of Thursday.
Senators in the US are also anticipated to move forward with a measure that would create a digital asset market structure. This bill would make it plain what the CFTC and SEC’s roles are in regulating cryptocurrencies. Drafts of prospective frameworks for discussion would give the CFTC more power to control digital assets.