CFTC Sends Crypto-Market Rulemaking to White House After CLARITY Vote
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has submitted a crypto-market rulemaking to the White House for review after the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act, giving the agency a separate route to develop digital-asset rules under its existing authority.
The filing was sent to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) on September 17, two days after the Senate vote. The CFTC has not released the text or details of the rulemaking, and OIRA currently lists it at the prerule stage rather than as a proposed rule.
The development follows CFTC Chairman Michael Selig’s statement that the agency would continue working on crypto regulation after the Senate vote. The move comes as both the CFTC and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continue regulatory work while Congress’s broader market-structure legislation remains stalled.
CFTC Sends Crypto-Market Rulemaking To White House Review
The CFTC submitted a regulatory filing titled “Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets” to OIRA, an office within the White House’s Office of Management and Budget that reviews significant federal regulatory actions. OIRA currently identifies the action as a prerule, meaning the process is still before the stage at which a proposed rule would be formally published.
The filing came one day after CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said the agency would continue working on crypto regulation following the Senate’s failure to advance the CLARITY Act.
In his September 16 X post, Selig said the CFTC would use its existing statutory authorities as it works toward a crypto regulatory framework. According to the reports, the agency has not disclosed which assets, exchanges or activities could be covered by the rulemaking.
This lack of detail is important because the filing does not yet establish new requirements for crypto companies or trading platforms. The proposal’s eventual scope, including which digital assets or market activities could fall under it, remains unclear. The CFTC would also need to move through additional regulatory steps before any final rules could take effect.
The timing nevertheless connects the CFTC’s action directly to the stalled congressional effort. The Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act in a September 15 procedural vote, leaving the legislation short of the 60 votes required to move forward. However, subsequent reporting showed that both federal market regulators were continuing their own work under existing authority.
CLARITY Act Background As SEC Also Works On Crypto Rules
The CLARITY Act was intended to establish a federal framework for digital-asset market structure, including clearer divisions of responsibility between the SEC and CFTC.
The House passed the legislation in 2025, while Senate committees worked on revised versions during 2026 before the bill reached the full Senate. Its September 15 procedural vote failed to reach the threshold required to advance the legislation.
The agencies had already indicated that they would continue using their existing powers if Congress did not complete the legislation. In a July 27 CNBC interview, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said the SEC was prepared to develop rules addressing the same issues covered by CLARITY if congressional action did not happen.
The statement was later cited in an SEC filing. The SEC-hosted filing containing Atkins’ remarks records his position that the agency could address those issues either to implement the legislation or if Congress did not act.
Atkins repeated that position in the days surrounding the Senate vote. In a September 14 speech, he said the administration would continue its work “with or without” the CLARITY Act, while also urging Congress to advance the legislation. Atkins’ remarks on the SEC website show that the SEC’s regulatory program was continuing alongside the legislative effort.
That approach was followed by a concrete SEC action on September 17. In a statement released that day, Atkins said the SEC was taking action after Congress failed to advance CLARITY. The agency introduced an Innovation Exemption, providing temporary and conditional relief for certain tokenized-stock trading venues under existing securities-law authority.
The SEC’s announcement says the measure is intended as an interim step while the commission considers longer-term rulemaking. The CFTC’s filing therefore represents another stage in the agencies’ work rather than a replacement for the CLARITY Act.
Congress could still revisit the legislation, while the CFTC and SEC continue using their existing statutory powers. For the CFTC specifically, the immediate development is that its crypto-market rulemaking has entered White House review, while the contents and eventual regulatory effect remain to be determined.
