CFTC proposes Regulation CTX and Regulation CAM to pull leveraged crypto exchanges under federal oversight

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on October 5, 2026 laying out two linked regulations for crypto markets, reported by CoinDesk, Decrypt and The Block. The package is Chairman Michael Selig's contingency plan after the Clarity Act died 49–50 in the Senate on September 15, and the first time a US financial regulator has written a dedicated exchange category into its rulebook for crypto.

The two regulations

Regulation CTX — Crypto Asset Transactions. Covers leveraged, margined or financed crypto transactions offered to retail. Key provisions as described in the ANPR:

• Requires a futures commission merchant (FCM) to intermediate each transaction.
• Imposes money-laundering safeguards tied to the FCM.
• Exempts transactions in which the underlying asset is actually delivered to the customer within 28 days — the long-standing "actual delivery" carve-out from Dodd-Frank's retail commodity rules.
• Treats "actual delivery" as potentially requiring the customer to hold their own private keys; on-chain trading that sends tokens directly to a user's wallet "would usually clear that bar," per the notice.

Regulation CAM — Crypto Asset Markets. Creates a new, narrower exchange registration category sized for crypto venues, as an alternative to full Designated Contract Market registration. Key provisions:

• Prohibits listing products judged manipulation-vulnerable.
• Mandates proof-of-reserves for omnibus accounts.
• Opens a pathway to "operate under uniform national oversight" without state-by-state money transmitter licensing — but only once registered.

What triggers CFTC jurisdiction

Leverage is the trigger. Per Decrypt's reading of the notice, "simply offering leverage, even through routine onboarding documents or terms of service, could pull fully paid trades under the agency's watch." Exchanges that do not offer leverage can continue operating under state money transmitter licenses — the status quo for most US spot venues.

Spot-only, non-leveraged crypto trading remains outside federal jurisdiction. Neither CTX nor CAM touches it. That is the "spot-market gap" CoinDesk flagged in its headline: the CFTC cannot close the gap without new statutory authority, which is exactly what Clarity would have provided.

Selig's quotes

From the CFTC announcement, as reported by CoinDesk and Decrypt:

• "Today, the CFTC is doing its part to deliver clear rules of the road for crypto asset markets."
• "[The rules would] codify a pathway for crypto asset exchanges to operate under uniform national oversight."
• "A person should not have to register as an introducing broker simply because that person shipped code."
• The framework is "designed to prevent, rather than only prosecute after the fact, fraudulent schemes such as FTX."

Selig is currently the sole sitting CFTC commissioner, Journal du Coin notes, which has let him move the rulemaking without a quorum vote the Commission would ordinarily need.

Timeline and procedural posture

• September 17, 2026: Rules submitted to the White House OIRA for interagency review (per Journal du Coin).
• October 5, 2026: Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking published.
• Comment period: 60 days from Federal Register publication.
• Expected final rules: late 2027 at the earliest, per Troutman Pepper Locke's legal analysis cited by Journal du Coin.

This is an advance notice — the document poses questions to the market and does not yet contain enforceable rules. No exchange faces new obligations today.

What to watch

1. Which existing US venues register under CAM — Coinbase Derivatives, Bitnomial, Kraken and Kalshi are the obvious candidates to apply once rules firm up.
2. How "actual delivery" cashes out in practice — on-chain delivery to a user-controlled wallet is the clearest safe harbor; custodial exchange delivery to an in-house account is the murky case the ANPR solicits comment on.
3. The spot gap — the CFTC's "we need statutory authority" framing is a tee-up for the next Congress. Clarity failed by one vote; a redrafted bill in 2027 is the obvious next move.
4. Overlap with SEC custody rulemaking — the SEC's custody rule for advisers and trust companies, floated this week, covers related entities. Firms will file for both regimes in parallel.

Context

The CFTC's own enforcement playbook has shifted this year: the Mashinsky permanent trading ban (September), the Fundsz Ponzi default judgment (October), and the twin event-contracts rules sent to OMB (September 30) each used existing authority. CTX and CAM are the first attempt to lock that authority into a crypto-specific rulebook rather than lean on the Commodity Exchange Act's general swap and retail commodity provisions.