U.S. SEC, CFTC Combine Forces to Clear Registered Firms' Trading of Spot Crypto

Certain crypto assets can change hands with a stamp of approval from both of the U.S. markets regulators, according to a joint statement from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which said that today's registered trading platforms can do that business with the agencies' blessing.

In a stark shift from the hesitant, risk-averse stance of the previous administration, the regulators appointed by President Donald Trump — an avowed advocate of the industry and a growing crypto magnate though his family's business operations — have quickly cleared a wide path for digital assets to get into the existing financial regulator system.

The SEC, until last year run by crypto skeptic Gary Gensler, and the CFTC "are coordinating efforts to facilitate the trading of certain spot crypto asset products on registered exchanges," according to the Tuesday statement. Under the SEC's "Project Crypto" and the CFTC's ongoing "crypto sprint," their leaders are pushing to meet Trump's orders to set up the U.S. as the world's leading crypto hub.

The agencies argue their view that CFTC-registered designated contract markets (DCMs), foreign board of trade (FBOTs) and SEC-registered national securities exchanges (NSEs) "are not prohibited from facilitating the trading of certain spot crypto asset products." The SEC and CFTC are inviting such entities to contact staff to figure out how to move forward.

"Market participants should have the freedom to choose where they trade spot crypto assets," said SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, in a statement.

His counterpart at the CFTC, Acting Chairman Caroline Pham, called the joint statement "the latest demonstration of our mutual objective of supporting growth and development in these markets, but it will not be the last.”

The Tuesday statement didn't detail specific cryptocurrencies beyond citing "certain spot crypto asset products."

The markets watchdogs said they "are prepared to engage with trading venues about applying fair and orderly market principles as they seek to operate markets for participants to trade spot crypto asset products."

As the agencies seek to use existing regulations and authorities to open the financial system to crypto, Congress has been working on a sweeping set of crypto market rules that the industry is counting on to fully establish it in the U.S. It's unclear, though, how long the lawmakers might take getting that legislation to Trump's desk.

One of the main holes in previous U.S. oversight of crypto has been the CFTC's lack of authority to fully regulate firms trading on the crypto commodity spot market — where actual assets are directly changing hands.

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