CFTC ignores CLARITY bill and plans to enact cryptocurrency rules

The CFTC has drawn up a proposal for the structure of the digital asset market, and the legislative process will not affect the advancement of supervision.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is preparing to propose relevant plans on the structure of the digital asset market. Even if Congress fails to pass the CLARITY Act, the agency can still advance relevant work.

Summary of Points

CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said that regardless of the outcome of the bill, the structure of the cryptocurrency market will continue to advance. The CLARITY Act will face a procedural Senate vote on September 15 and will need 60 votes to move forward. CFTC advisers will discuss digital assets, artificial intelligence and forecasting markets on August 20. The agency also separately solicited opinions on derivatives related to artificial intelligence computing power.

According to a report on August 20, Selig said that the CFTC is ready for regulatory proposals and that if lawmakers fail to complete legislation, the agency still has ways to continue advancing its encryption agenda. Selig said: "Whether or not the bill is passed, cryptocurrencies will gain market structure." It is unclear at present the specific content of the proposal that the agency has completed drafting, the release time, and the scope of the framework that can be built under existing legal authority. Congress still needs to take action before the CFTC obtains the full regulatory authority of the spot market as envisioned in the CLARITY Act.

CFTC can advance crypto regulatory rules under existing authority

The CFTC currently regulates the derivatives market, including futures, options and swaps related to digital assets. Its enforcement authority also covers fraud and manipulation in spot commodity trading, but the agency lacks the same regular oversight powers over crypto spot exchanges as it does over registered derivatives platforms. Without legislative support, any proposal by the CFTC must remain within the authority already granted by the Commodity Exchange Act. As a result, rules involving registered derivatives platforms, intermediaries, disclosure requirements, or crypto futures can be advanced independently, while establishing a complete federal regulatory framework for spot digital commodity trading requires congressional action.

For U.S. investors, this distinction will affect the institutions that regulate their trading platforms. The CLARITY Act would establish a registration framework for specific digital commodity exchanges and divide regulatory responsibilities for digital assets between the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The bill in principle places eligible digital goods under CFTC regulation, while retaining the SEC's jurisdiction over crypto assets deemed securities. Lawmakers are still negotiating on issues such as decentralized finance, ethical restrictions and incentives provided by stablecoin balances.

It has been previously reported that the expansion of the CFTC's scope of responsibility will also raise staffing and resource issues. The committee should have five members, but currently there is only one confirmed member, Selig, and its staff size is lower than the level of fiscal year 2025. If the agency needs to supervise spot crypto trading based on existing derivatives, forecasting markets and enforcement efforts, staffing restrictions will become more prominent. The CLARITY Act could give the CFTC regulatory authority over major parts of the U.S. digital asset market, requiring the agency to review registration applications and supervise companies that are not currently under its regular supervision.

CLARITY Act faces a 60-vote test in the Senate

Senate Majority Leader John Thune submitted a closing debate motion to advance the CLARITY Act before lawmakers entered their August recess. According to the Senate schedule, a procedural vote will be held on September 15 after members return. Closing debate requires 60 votes, which means Republican support alone may not be enough to move the bill forward. Even if the Senate passes closing debate, it will only allow the Senate to begin consideration of the bill, and members can still debate or revise the text before final adoption votes. The House passed its version of the CLARITY Act in July 2025, and the Senate Banking Committee advanced its text in May 2026. Any Senate version that differs from the House bill will require further action by Congress before it can be sent to the president for signature.

Negotiations remain difficult as lawmakers debate ethical requirements for public officials and restrictions on stablecoin rewards. The bill's probability of passing in the forecast market has also declined, with Polymarket pricing its likelihood of becoming law in 2026 below 20%, compared with 82% in February. At a White House event on August 19, President Trump urged lawmakers to pass what he called a "fair version" of the bill. Trump called the proposal the product of bipartisan cooperation and said federal law was needed to ensure that his government's digital asset policy continued after he left office.

Representatives from Coinbase, Gemini, Ripple, Kraken, Chainlink Labs, Anchorage Digital, Grayscale and OKX attended the event, as well as executives from prediction markets and artificial intelligence companies. The White House meeting was held one day before the CFTC's first Innovation Advisory Committee meeting.

The CFTC committee is reviewing unresolved encryption issues

The CFTC is scheduled to hold its first Innovation Advisory Committee meeting in Washington on August 20 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.(EST). The agenda covers digital assets, artificial intelligence in financial markets, and forecasting markets. In the crypto segment, committee members are expected to examine customer protection, market integrity and the CFTC's ability to use existing legal powers. Discussions also included how agency action could supplement legislation passed by Congress rather than replace the additional powers contained in the CLARITY Act.

Committee members include executives and experts from crypto companies, traditional financial institutions, market infrastructure providers and technology companies. The advisory body can make recommendations, but cannot adopt binding regulations or expand the CFTC's legal jurisdiction. The public can submit written statements related to the meeting before August 27. The committee will publish accepted materials as part of the minutes of the meeting, but the meeting itself will not vote on proposals for a crypto market structure.

Meanwhile, the SEC is developing separate rules for crypto offerings and tokenized securities. Securitize President Brett Redfin said securities regulators withdrew their planned innovation exemptions due to concerns surrounding the September 15 vote on the CLARITY Act. Redfin expects the innovation exemption to be restored after the Senate vote, possibly in early October. The proposal would provide a tailor-made regulatory path for companies seeking to issue and trade tokenized securities, while retaining those products within the jurisdiction of the SEC. The SEC also canceled a public meeting originally scheduled for August 14, at which members would review a separate issuance framework for specific investment contracts involving crypto assets. The agency said it was due to unforeseen scheduling issues and did not publicly link the cancellation to the CLARITY Act.

CFTC seeks to set rules for artificial intelligence computing power market

Outside the field of digital assets, the CFTC solicited public opinions on derivatives related to artificial intelligence computing power on August 19. The 19-page consultation document covers liquidity, reference prices, manipulation risks, customer protection measures and possible listings of perpetual computing futures. Selig said in the announcement: "Without a strong market for computing power derivatives, the United States cannot win the artificial intelligence race." He called the consultation the first step in formulating rules for the U.S. computing power market. Computing power contracts can track the rental costs of specific graphics processors, such as the Nvidia H100 or Blackwell B200, or reference access rights to specific AI reasoning capabilities. The consultation document does not approve any contracts, establish final rules, and does not authorize exchanges to begin trading in these products. Public comments will be open for 60 days after the consultation document is published in the Federal Register. As of August 20, the document had not yet been published in the Federal Register, so a final submission deadline has not yet been set. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group plans to launch two futures contracts on October 5 based on the daily GPU rental benchmark provided by Silicon Valley data. The two planned products are still subject to regulatory review, and the proposed launch date does not guarantee that the CFTC review will be completed by then.