November 18, Caroline Pham, Acting President of the CFTC radius at an industry conference on futures and options, where she highlighted the agency’s recent progress and outlined upcoming steps as well as its regulatory approach to digital assets and its market structure. Pham described blockchain technology and tokenization as paving the way for a “structural modernization” of financial market infrastructure, drawing parallels with the “electronics” of markets in previous decades.
Pham reviewed the CFTC’s “Crypto Sprint,” a 12-month initiative launched to implement the recommendations of the President’s Task Force on Digital Asset Markets. The main priorities of the initiative included: (i) enabling spot trading of cryptocurrencies on Designated Contract Markets (DCMs); (ii) facilitate the use of tokenized collateral such as stablecoins in derivatives markets; and (iii) propose technical amendments to the CFTC regulations to accommodate the use of blockchain technology and tokenization in derivatives markets. Pham said she expected crypto spot transactions on DCMs to be listed before the end of the year and guidance to be provided for tokenized collateral by early 2026.
The remarks detailed several recent reversals of proposed rules and staff notices aimed at reducing regulatory burden and supporting innovation. Pham noted that the agency is considering how payment stablecoins qualify under the GENIUS Act (previously covered by InfoBytes). here) could be used as margin and settlement assets in derivatives markets. Pham’s remarks also highlighted the potential of tokenized money market funds to improve collateral mobility and capital efficiency and encouraged public comment on related regulatory issues.
Referring to increased interagency collaboration between the CFTC and SEC, namely a recent joint roundtable on regulatory harmonization, Pham highlighted the CLARITY Act and the GENIUS Act as major congressional efforts toward a comprehensive federal framework for digital assets and stablecoins, respectively. She also discussed the importance of cross-border frameworks for non-US exchanges and the use of existing registration categories to avoid market fragmentation.
(See source.)
