Morning Minute: The CFTC Reveals Plan to Regulate Crypto Exchanges

What happened

Decrypt News Opinion Morning Minute: The CFTC Reveals Plan to Regulate Crypto Exchanges Clear rules of the road are here. Clear rules of the road are here.

The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. It’s an early document asking for public input before anyone drafts real rules, with 60 days to comment once it hits the Federal Register.

But it lays out what Congress couldn’t pass: a federal license for crypto exchanges, with leverage deciding who needs one. Crypto trading currently runs under rules built for other markets, or under state licenses that vary by state.

The CFTC wants one federal option instead of fifty. The two pieces are Regulation CTX and Regulation CAM.

Mainly trades involving borrowed money, or where borrowing is merely offered. The agency reads a 2010 Dodd-Frank provision broadly enough that even a fully paid trade could count if the exchange mentions leverage in its terms and holds your crypto on its own books.