CFTC proposes federal rules for crypto exchanges offering leveraged trading

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Monday proposed a new federal framework for cryptocurrency exchanges that offer leveraged digital asset trading, moving parts of the spot crypto market under federal oversight weeks after Congress failed to advance comprehensive crypto regulation.

The proposed rules would let US crypto exchanges opt into a federal regulatory regime instead of relying primarily on a patchwork of state money-transmitter licences, the agency said. Exchanges opting in would comply with one uniform set of federal rules rather than different regimes state by state, which many have argued is overly burdensome.

The proposal uses the CFTC’s existing authority to oversee margined or leveraged spot assets. The agency has long sought broader authority over spot cryptocurrency markets, which operate in a regulatory grey area — but only Congress can grant that purview.

“For years, entrepreneurs building on the new frontier of finance faced uncertainty about whether there was a place for them in our markets. We are giving them an answer,” CFTC Chair Michael Selig said in a speech on Monday at an event held by Fordham University’s law school.

Under the rules, the CFTC would create a new category of CFTC-regulated trading venues called a “crypto asset market” for exchanges offering leveraged or margined trading to retail customers. Those platforms would face requirements including anti-market manipulation controls and a “proof of reserves” obligation. Customer trades on the new venues would be intermediated through registered futures commission merchants.

CoinDesk reported the same day that the new category of platforms would be known as crypto asset markets (CAMs), and that crypto activity involving leverage, margin or financing would fall into the CFTC’s regulatory world under the rules.

Sources: Reuters (Hannah Lang, 5 Oct 2026) — https://www.reuters.com/world/us-commodities-regulator-proposes-new-federal-crypto-oversight-rules-2026-10-05/ ; CoinDesk (5 Oct 2026) — https://scoopfeeds.com/article/af5affde-10b0-5eec-b9ac-a93961e236dc