CFTC opens consultation to allow exchanges to trade spot cryptocurrencies

The acting chairman of the CFTC on Monday launched the project, with the agency receiving comments on the proposal until August 18.

“Under President Trump’s strong leadership and vision, the CFTC is full speed ahead on enabling immediate trading of digital assets at the Federal level in coordination with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) Project Crypto,” Caroline Pham (pictured) said in a release. “There is a clear and simple solution the CFTC can implement now.

“The Commodity Exchange Act currently requires that retail trading of commodities with leverage, margin or financing must be conducted on a designated contract market (DCM). Starting today, we invite all stakeholders to work with us on providing regulatory clarity on how to list spot crypto asset contracts on a DCM using our existing authority, as I have previously proposed since 2022. Together, we will make America the crypto capital of the world.”

The US futures regulator currently allows regulated exchanges like CME Group to list futures and options on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin but they are prohibited from listing spot cryptocurrencies.

CME Group, which manages the largest US regulated cryptocurrency derivatives market, hit an average daily volume record of 302,000 lots last month, according to figures published this week.

That beat the previous daily high of 245,000 futures and options contracts in December last year. Volume in micro bitcoin futures, CME's most liquid contract, more than doubled in the first six months of 2025, to 8.8 million contracts, according to FOW data.

Paul Atkins, the chair of the SEC, launched “Project Crypto” last week, a wide-ranging reform program aimed at implementing recommendations in a President’s Working Group on Digital Assets paper published earlier last week.

The move is part of a wider push to bring the vast crypto asset market onshore into the US and allow regulated oversight of instruments currently traded outside the jurisdiction.

The lower house of the Senate last month passed votes on the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act and the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act), which covers the issuance stablecoins backed by the US dollar and the regulatory framework for oversight of crypto assets.

Pham is set to step down in the coming weeks after the appointment of crypto-friendly Brian Quintenz as permanent chair of the US futures watchdog. Quintenz’s confirmation vote was once again delayed last week, leaving the future composition of the agency in limbo.