CFTC chief says agency can move on crypto rules without new law
Regulation & Gov ·
Michael Selig says the CFTC will use its current authority to write crypto market rules after the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act.
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig posted on X that the Senate's failure to move forward on crypto legislation this week was a disappointing outcome, arguing that market participants in the United States are still owed clearer rules, firmer legal footing and stronger protections in digital asset trading. The remarks, detailed in a report from wublockchain.xyz, came the day after a cloture vote on the CLARITY Act fell short in the Senate by a 49-50 margin, well below the 60 votes needed to proceed, leaving the bill on the calendar rather than killing it outright.
Selig framed the setback as a temporary hurdle rather than an end point, pointing to a prior commitment from President Trump to establish a durable, forward-looking structure for regulating crypto asset markets. Rather than wait for Congress to act, Selig said the CFTC intends to work within its existing statutory powers to help build that framework, describing the agency as prepared to issue rules covering what he called the new frontier of finance.
The approach signals that the commission does not see the stalled Senate vote as blocking near-term regulatory action, since it can rely on authority it already holds rather than new legislative language. That distinction matters because comprehensive market-structure legislation like the CLARITY Act would have given federal regulators clearer, statute-based jurisdiction over digital asset categories, something agency rulemaking under current law may only partially replicate.
A second account of the episode in the same cluster echoes the core claim, noting that Selig is positioning the CFTC to press ahead on crypto market rules specifically because the CLARITY Act stalled in the Senate, corroborating the chairman's public statement.
What remains unclear is the scope and timeline of any rules the CFTC plans to issue under its existing authority, and whether the CLARITY Act, still technically alive on the Senate calendar, will be brought back for another vote. Also unresolved is how agency-level rulemaking would interact with or eventually be superseded by any future legislation covering the same market-structure questions.