A former top US derivatives regulator says the CFTC can write crypto rules without Congress

What happened

In an interview at Token2049 Singapore published on October 12, the former acting chair of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission argued that the agency already has what it needs to write crypto rules, with or without Congress. The Commodity Exchange Act, the former chair said, gives the commission jurisdiction over nearly everything, with carve-outs amounting to roughly "onions and box office receipts." The framework was designed to be principles-based and flexible enough to cover new kinds of commodities, the interviewee added, pointing to markets for AI computing power as exactly the sort of thing it was built to anticipate.

The remarks arrive after the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act, the market-structure bill that would have divided crypto oversight between the securities and derivatives regulators. The industry has since split between those now focused on agency rulemaking and those still pushing for formal legislation. The commission, under its current chairman, has been issuing proposed rulemakings for crypto, most recently an advanced notice on Regulation CAM and Regulation CTX that would create a federal framework for leveraged retail crypto transactions as an alternative to state-by-state licensing. The former chair called that proposal "absolutely the kind of protection" American retail crypto traders should have, adding that a strongly regulated exchange is preferable to "a patchwork of different laws."

The interviewee framed the proposal as a continuation of the Crypto Sprint initiative launched in 2025, which authorized the first trading of spot crypto on commission-registered exchanges. That effort rested on a 2010 Dodd-Frank provision requiring leveraged, margined or financed retail commodity transactions to take place on a regulated exchange, a requirement the agency had left unenforced for years.

Why it matters

The interview draws the clearest map yet of where US crypto regulation goes if Congress stays out of it: the derivatives regulator writes the rules it already believes it can write, and the fight moves from statute to rulemaking procedure.

The most substantive part of the interview was not about jurisdiction but about plumbing. The former chair argued the industry is overestimating the role of stablecoins in wholesale markets relative to tokenized bank deposits. The claim rests on an arresting estimate: settling an entire trading day's obligations immediately on a blockchain, trade by trade, would require roughly 15 trillion dollars in available cash, an amount the interviewee described as not existing. Banks today handle that volume through net settlement, offsetting what counterparties owe each other and moving only the residual balances. Tokenized deposits, meaning commercial bank money recorded on digital rails, could preserve those banking relationships while letting blockchain handle the transfers, which is why the former chair called them "absolutely necessary" for wholesale markets. Stablecoins, by contrast, fit where counterparties do not know or trust each other, or where the goal is to eliminate settlement risk by delivering the asset and the payment simultaneously.

On tokenized equities, the former chair predicted the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq will list tokenized shares and see "real" trading activity within two years. The SEC's innovation exemption for tokenized stock venues, the interviewee said, is "very clearly about creating a regulated pathway" for real, exchange-listed stocks to trade on those venues inside an SEC framework. Recent partnerships between a major exchange group and a crypto exchange, and between the NYSE's parent company and another exchange, were cited as evidence of traditional finance converging with crypto-native technology. The distinction that matters, the interviewee argued, is between real securities, which carry voting rights and shareholder governance, and synthetic tokens issued without the company's approval, which have already drawn public objections from the companies involved.

The interview also predicted a second wave of NFTs once regulatory clarity improves, framed not as securities but as customer-engagement tools comparable to loyalty points or airline miles. Prior US enforcement, the former chair said, had chilled activity that was never equivalent to equity ownership.

What to watch

Watch whether the Regulation CAM and CTX proposals move past the notice stage. An advanced notice is the beginning of rulemaking, not a rule, and the distance between the two is where industry lobbying lives.

Watch the tokenized-stock venues. The SEC exemption created the pathway; the test is whether licensed NYSE or Nasdaq shares actually list and trade there, and whether volume looks "real" within the two-year window the interview sketched.

Watch for tokenized-deposit pilots. The 15 trillion dollar figure is one person's estimate, not an official requirement, but the argument behind it (net settlement survives because atomic settlement is too expensive) is now stated as the position of a recent top regulator. Banks and market infrastructure firms will have to answer it.

And watch Congress. The interview's premise is that agency action is sufficient; the industry's legislation-first camp disagrees, and the next move belongs to whichever side can show results first.