CFTC Files Crypto Market Rulemaking With White House at Prerule Stage

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission sent a crypto market-structure rulemaking to the White House on Sept. 17 under RIN 3038-AF80, titled "Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets." The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs logged the submission as a prerule action, a category that covers preliminary steps such as notices of inquiry and advance notices of proposed rulemaking. The CFTC has not released any draft text publicly, and the RIN has not yet appeared in the Unified Agenda. OIRA’s designation means the submission is subject to the shorter review period for preliminary actions under Executive Order 12866: 10 working days rather than the 90-day clock that applies to formal proposed and final rules. The entry filed by OIRA contains no abstract or text, marks the action as not economically significant, and flags it as related to the Dodd-Frank Act. Ten working days from the Sept. 17 receipt would run to Oct. 1 unless OIRA extends the review. The package covers both transaction-level and market-structure items that Chairman Michael Selig has described publicly. Earlier this year Selig directed staff to draft rules clarifying when leveraged, margined, or financed retail commodity crypto transactions may be offered off-exchange under an "actual delivery" exception, to develop requirements for designated contract markets offering those products, to explore a new DCM registration category tailored to retail leveraged crypto trading, and to consider rules for additional forms of tokenized collateral. He has also directed engagement with developers of onchain finance protocols. The filing follows the Senate’s Sept. 15 rejection of cloture on H.R. 3633—the CLARITY Act—by a 49-50 vote, after which CFTC leadership said the agency would act using its existing authorities if the bill stalled. The submission to OIRA is the only CFTC action currently listed as pending White House review. The agency also issued a Market Participants Division no-action position for providers of passive trading facilitation software on the same day the filing reached OIRA. Selig remains the sole commissioner on the five-seat commission; four seats are vacant.