CFTC’s Pham Moves to Launch Spot Crypto Trading Without Congress

Caroline Pham, the acting head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), is guiding U.S. exchanges to launch compliant retail spot crypto products, despite the absence of Congressional authority. Pham, who will eventually be succeeded by Mike Selig, has been convening discussions with regulated exchanges to initiate spot trading possibly by next month. She aims to enable leveraged trading of digital assets, such as bitcoin and Ethereum, under traditional commodity regulations, enticing institutional investors by providing a regulated trading environment. In tandem, Pham is working on stabilizing rules for using stablecoins as tokenized collateral, expected to be piloted by mid-next year. Despite anticipated shifts in leadership, Pham has been actively restructuring the CFTC and has expressed confidence in the agency's legal authority to oversee these new trading avenues. With the ongoing government shutdown hampering broader legislative efforts, the CFTC is taking proactive steps to clarify its role concerning spot crypto markets.

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