Calling the US the “crypto capital of the world,” Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Mike Selig updated his agency’s ongoing plans to provide long-awaited regulatory clarity for developers of decentralized finance (DeFi), crypto derivatives, and prediction markets.
Speaking this week at the FIA Global Cleared Markets Conference in Boca Raton, Florida, Selig said the United States is regaining leadership in digital assets through closer coordination among regulators. He said he and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Paul Atkins have “ended the days of infighting between the CFTC and the SEC by partnering on the Project Crypto initiative.”
During his speech, Selig reiterated that the CFTC will issue guidance to clarify how prediction markets, known as event contracts in regulation, can list and market products under U.S. law and will launch a rulemaking process seeking public input on how the fast-growing sector should be overseen. Prediction markets are no longer a niche and have become a rapidly growing ecosystem of trading platforms that allow users to trade contracts tied to elections, economic outcomes, and real-world events.
Selig said that because “market participants deserve clarity,” the agency intends to take a more active role in regulating these markets and defending its authority over them amid ongoing legal challenges from several U.S. states. He repeated his sentiment from last month that the CFTC should be viewed as the regulator of these markets, and “will continue to evaluate litigation strategies to ensure the agency’s voice is heard.”
DeFi and Crypto Derivatives Developers
The CFTC, he said, also plans to address one of the crypto industry’s most contentious regulatory issues: “For too long, there has been an open question about whether software vendors trigger CFTC registration requirements,” Selig said. “We intend to address this issue head-on.”
The agency is also looking at how US law should treat several cryptocurrency trading structures that have historically operated in regulatory gray areas, including leveraged cryptocurrency spot trading and standards for margined spot trading on exchanges. Former acting chair Caroline Pham last year began erasing old guidance on “actual delivery” standards from President Donald Trump’s first term so the regulator could write something more friendly to the industry’s spot market practices.
The agency has also been addressing the classification of crypto perpetual derivatives, a dominant product in global crypto markets.
Read More: CFTC Chief Selig to Clear Way for US Perpetual Futures in Coming Weeks
The CFTC Chairman also noted the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and automated trading systems in digital markets and the need for regulatory frameworks that support innovation in these technologies.
Selig’s comments echo recent statements from NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin, who said that AI agents will soon be the main users of blockchain, and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who wrote in X that “very soon there will be more AI agents than humans transacting.”
