The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking aimed at bringing crypto exchanges that offer leverage under federal oversight, following the collapse of the Clarity Act in the Senate last month.
The notice, issued Monday, is an early step that seeks public input before formal rules are drafted. The public will have 60 days to comment once the notice appears in the Federal Register.
The proposal outlines two linked frameworks: Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions (Regulation CTX) and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets (Regulation CAM). The plan rests on a 2010 Dodd-Frank provision requiring retail commodity trades offered with leverage, margin, or financing to take place on a CFTC-registered exchange, as if they were futures.
Under Regulation CTX, the CFTC interprets that rule broadly: simply offering leverage, even through routine onboarding documents or terms of service, could pull fully paid trades under the agency's watch, as long as the purchased crypto sits on the exchange's internal books rather than in the customer's own wallet. Trades escape federal oversight only through "actual delivery," which the CFTC suggests could require customers to hold their private keys. On-chain trading protocols, which typically send tokens straight to users' wallets, would usually clear that bar, according to the agency.
