Key Takeaways
- Acting Chairman Caroline D. Pham said the initiative will focus on turning the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets’ recommendations into concrete regulatory measures.
- The CFTC said the Crypto Sprint will involve engagement with industry stakeholders, regulators, and the public to ensure rules keep pace with technological changes.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Thursday announced a “Crypto Sprint” initiative to accelerate the implementation of policy recommendations for digital asset markets.
Acting Chairman Caroline D. Pham said the initiative will focus on turning the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets’ recommendations into concrete regulatory measures. She will work with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul Atkins and Commissioner Hester Peirce under a joint effort called “Project Crypto” to improve clarity for digital asset regulation.
The move comes days after the US President Donald Trump’s Working Group on Digital Assets released its crypto report detailing policy recommendations for regulating crypto in the country. The working group had recommended that the SEC and CFTC collaborate on crypto oversight. While Commodity tokens, spot crypto markets will be governed by the CFTC, other tokens deemed to be securities will come under the regulatory lens of SEC.
The group has asked CFTC to advance guidance on how crypto could be considered commodities. The President’s group, among its requests, to the regulator has also sought details on how CFTC’s registration requirements would work with decentralized finance.
Since taking office earlier this year, Pham has taken steps to update the CFTC’s engagement with the crypto sector. These include holding the agency’s first “Crypto CEO Forum,” rescinding outdated staff advisories, and issuing new guidance for both domestic and foreign market participants. The CFTC has also explored the idea of a pilot program for digital asset markets and joined industry tokenization initiatives as an observer.
In April, perpetual derivatives began trading on CFTC-registered designated contract markets for the first time in the United States. The following month, 24/7 trading access went live, reflecting the agency’s consideration of round-the-clock markets and non-expiring contracts, which are already common in overseas crypto exchanges.
The CFTC said the Crypto Sprint will involve engagement with industry stakeholders, regulators, and the public to ensure rules keep pace with technological changes. No timeline for the initiative has been launched yet.
