The CFTC's crypto prerule needs 120 days of comment before it binds an exchange
Michael Selig filed an early-stage crypto rulemaking with the White House budget office two days after the Senate stalled the CLARITY Act, and the filing's own schedule puts a binding rule in late 2027.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- The CFTC sent its crypto market rulemaking to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on September 17, 2026, filed as RIN 3038-AF80 with its contents confidential during review.
- Two days earlier the Senate's cloture vote on the CLARITY Act ended 49 to 50, eleven votes short of the 60 needed to open debate on the bill.
- The Reginfo entry lists a pre-rule stage, no economic significance and no legal deadlines, and confirms the CFTC is invoking Dodd-Frank authority.
- Chairman Michael Selig is the only confirmed commissioner on a five-member body, and the agency ended fiscal 2025 with roughly 556 employees against 708 a year earlier.
- On the same day, CFTC staff issued no-action relief letting passive software providers skip introducing-broker registration under ten conditions, and the SEC published a five-year tokenized-stock exemption.
Why it matters
- What it limits constraint The filing is an advance notice, so a venue can hold the crypto asset market designation Selig sketched only once a final rule takes effect.
- Who has to decide decision With four of five seats vacant, whatever OIRA sends back gets resolved and voted out by one commissioner, and no dissent from a second vote will be on the record.
- Who's exposed exposure Firms building products on the no-action letter hold relief the commission says is not binding and can suspend or terminate at its own discretion, and the SEC exemption's renewal sits with a future chair.
- What doesn't add up contradiction Bessent framed agency rulemaking as the fallback timeline for US crypto markets, yet what the agency has filed is a prerule the same sources say exchanges cannot act on.
Next story · Invest · 6d ago
CFTC proposes crypto leverage rules under existing law after the CLARITY Act stallsConfirmed2 publishers
Executive Order 12866 gives the White House up to 90 days to review what the CFTC filed, with one extension of up to 30 [19]. Counted from the September 17 receipt date, that runs to December 16, or to January 15 if the extension is used [28].
The rest is longer. The commission has to vote to release the advance notice, publish it in the Federal Register and open a comment period of about 60 days, then draft a proposed rule, resubmit it for review, vote again, publish again and open a second comment period, with the final rule going through review once more [15]. 24/7 Wall St, reading the same docket entry, puts publication in November or December 2026, a proposed rule in 2027 and a binding rule possibly not in effect until late that year [20]. The two comment periods by themselves are 120 days [22].
Set that against the legislative clock. Cryptopolitan reports the odds of another CLARITY vote this year are slim and that supporters may have to wait until next year [33]. Senator Cynthia Lummis, the lead negotiator, called the bill's chances all but dead this year [31], and seven Senate Democrats who opposed cloture have since indicated that negotiations could continue [32]. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has pointed to agency rulemaking as the fallback if the bill stalls [26]. That schedule puts the fallback in the same year as the statute it substitutes for.
Selig said on the day of the Senate vote that the agency was "locked in and ready to ship rules" [11], and in an August speech he said he had directed staff to "codify a CFTC market structure for crypto assets using the agency's existing authorities" [4]. The registration category he described does not exist yet. "This could enable current registrants as well as non-registrant crypto exchanges to be designated by the CFTC as a type of DCM known as a crypto asset market and offer crypto asset trading on a leveraged or margined basis subject to purpose-fit rules under the CFTC's regulatory oversight," he said [5]. A designated contract market has to meet the 23 core principles set out in Section 5(d) of the Commodity Exchange Act [24]. Writing that category falls to an agency whose payroll shrank by 152 people in a year, about 21 percent [30].
The docket entry also carries no economic significance, which 24/7 Wall St takes to mean the agency expects no annual impact of $100 million or more, a flag that can speed review [18]. The text itself stays confidential until review ends, and the CFTC declined to comment on its contents [3][12]. By that flag, a framework that would let unregistered crypto exchanges offer leveraged trading is worth less than $100 million a year.
OIRA is inside the Office of Management and Budget, and it vets federal regulations before agencies can publish them [17]. Under this administration, independent agencies including the CFTC and the SEC must send significant regulatory actions to OMB for review first [16]. The Democrats who blocked cloture cited ethics, pointing to Trump crypto holdings estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars and to the World Liberty Financial venture run by his sons, according to Cryptopolitan [27].
For anyone allocating capital against a listing regime, the nearest live deadline in the whole sequence belongs to the SEC, whose Regulation Crypto Assets proposal takes comments until October 20 [25].
What to watch
- Whether OIRA clears the text or sends it back for revisions, and whether the advance notice reaches the Federal Register in November or December.
- A second cloture vote scheduled before the CFTC publishes would make the prerule a draft the statute overtakes.
- Whether any additional commissioners are confirmed before the vote to release the proposal for comment.
Information, not investment advice. This story is general information about companies and markets, drawn from cited reporting. It is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security; check the cited sources before acting.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence62
- Adoption6
- Hype gap+35
- Incentives55
- Confidence60
Perspective Coverage
6 publishers- Builder
- Builder 14%
- Operator
- Operator 45%
- Investor
- Investor 41%
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission submitted its crypto market rulemaking to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on September 17, 2026, two days after the Senate rejected the CLARITY Act.
- [2]
The filing is titled "Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets".
- [3]
The filing is identified on Reginfo.gov as RIN 3038-AF80, and its contents remain confidential while under review.
- [4]
In an August speech Selig said he had told staff that the work would "codify a CFTC market structure for crypto assets using the agency's existing authorities".
- [5]
Selig said: "This could enable current registrants as well as non-registrant crypto exchanges to be designated by the CFTC as a type of DCM known as a crypto asset market and offer crypto asset trading on a leveraged or margined basis subject to purpose-fit rules under the CFTC's regulatory oversight."
- [6]
The Senate cloture vote on the CLARITY Act on Tuesday, September 15 ended 49 to 50, eleven votes short of the 60 needed to advance the bill.
- [7]
The Reginfo entry shows a receipt date of September 17, a pre-rule stage, no economic significance, no legal deadlines, confirms Dodd-Frank authority and identifies no international impacts.
- [8]
Prerule signifies the stage before a proposed rule; the document heading to publication is an advance notice and is not something that exchanges can currently comply with.
- [9]
On September 17 CFTC staff issued a no-action letter freeing passive software providers, including wallets and trading apps, from registering as introducing brokers under ten conditions covering custody, order routing and trading signals.
- [10]
The CFTC's no-action letter is in place until a formal rule is adopted by the commission, and the Commission says it is not binding and can be modified, suspended or terminated at its own discretion.
- [11]
Chairman Michael Selig indicated on the day of the Senate vote that the agency was "locked in and ready to ship rules".
- [12]
Details of the proposal have not been released and the CFTC declined to comment on its contents.
- [13]
The SEC released an "innovation exemption", a five-year conditional order allowing blockchain venues to trade tokenized US stocks without registering as exchanges, and a future chair can decline to renew it.
- [14]
SEC Chair Paul Atkins pledged to act "with or without legislation".
- [15]
Once White House review is complete the Commission votes to release the advance notice, publishes it in the Federal Register and opens a comment period typically lasting 60 days; the CFTC then drafts a proposed rule, resubmits it to the White House, holds another vote, publishes again and opens a second comment period, and the final rule follows the same review process before taking effect.
- [16]
Under the Trump administration, independent agencies including the CFTC and the SEC have been required to submit significant regulatory actions to the Office of Management and Budget for review before publication.
- [17]
OIRA sits inside the Office of Management and Budget and vets federal regulations before they can be published.
- [18]
The absence of economic significance indicates that the agency anticipates no annual impact of $100 million or more, which may expedite the review process.
- [19]
Executive Order 12866 gives the White House up to 90 days to review, with a one-time extension of up to 30 days.
- [20]
If the review wraps up within 60 days, publication could occur in November or December 2026, with a proposed rule emerging in 2027 and a final binding rule potentially not in effect until late that year.
- [21]
Selig is currently the sole commissioner on a body designed to have five members, leaving him as the only vote while the agency works through its crypto agenda.
- [22]
Two comment periods of about 60 days each total about 120 days of public comment.
- [23]
The CFTC operated with roughly 556 employees at the end of fiscal 2025, compared with 708 a year earlier.
- [24]
A DCM is a designated contract market, the CFTC's term for an exchange it oversees, and any exchange holding that designation must adhere to 23 core principles outlined in Section 5(d) of the Commodity Exchange Act.
- [25]
The SEC's Regulation Crypto Assets and the related offering framework remain a proposal with comments open until October 20.
- [26]
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has previously pointed to agency rulemaking as the fallback if the Clarity Act stalls.
- [27]
Democratic negotiators pointed to ethics as their reason for opposing the measure, citing Trump's crypto holdings, now estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and ties to the World Liberty Financial venture run by his sons.
- [28]
Ninety days from the September 17, 2026 receipt date expires on December 16, 2026, and the one-time 30-day extension would carry review to January 15, 2027.
- [29]
Four of the CFTC's five commission seats are vacant.
- [30]
CFTC headcount fell by 152 in a year, about 21 percent.
- [31]
Lead negotiator Sen. Cynthia Lummis called the CLARITY Act's chances all but dead this year.
- [32]
Seven Senate Democrats who opposed cloture have since indicated that negotiations could continue, leaving the legislation unresolved.
- [33]
The odds of another vote on the CLARITY Act happening this year are slim, and those hoping it would advance this year may have to wait until next year.
Sources
6 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.
- 247wallst.comThe CFTC Just Sent Its Crypto Rules to the White House. What's in the Filing, and How Quickly Could It Move? - 24/7 Wall St.
1 article · September 18, 2026
- cointelegraph.comCFTC submits crypto market regulation plan for White House review
2 articles · September 18, 2026
- crypto.newsCFTC submits crypto market framework for White House review
1 article · September 18, 2026
- cryptobriefing.comCFTC sends first crypto market rulemaking to the White House for review
1 article · October 5, 2026
- cryptopolitan.comCFTC advances crypto rulemaking proposal for Trump White House review
1 article · September 18, 2026
- decrypt.coCFTC Kicks Off Crypto Rulemaking, Bypassing a Stalled Congress
1 article · September 18, 2026
Topics and entities
Topics
- Crypto Market Structure Regulation
- Crypto Derivatives
- Federal Rulemaking Process