CFTC Chair Selig tells CNBC crypto industry is embracing agency rules as legislation hopes fade

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is already seeing demand from crypto exchanges planning to opt in to its newly proposed rules governing digital assets, according to Chairman Michael Selig.

The commodities regulator in October proposed rules aimed at preventing abuse in crypto markets and codifying crypto transaction rules under a federal rulebook. In the announcement, Selig said the move was a "critical step" in ensuring the United States remains the crypto capital of the world.

Speaking this week at Cantor Convergence, an annual FinTech conference held in Miami Beach, Selig told CNBC in an exclusive interview that many of the major crypto exchanges are already registered with the CFTC because they offer financial derivatives, including perpetual futures, on their platforms and would now be able to add spot trading.

"We're also getting interest from new entrants who say, 'Look, signing up with 50 different state regimes is tough. We'd rather come to one regulator and get a license at the CFTC' so those new entrants are lining up to come register with us as well," he added.

After the Clarity Act, a comprehensive market structure bill that established a regulatory framework for digital assets, stalled in the Senate in September, the CFTC and the SEC moved to establish federal frameworks using their existing statutory authorities.

"We need to protect our markets and protect our customers using those markets so we'll continue to do exactly that in the wake of the Clarity Act failing to get the votes it needed to get to the president's desk during the current Congress," Selig said.

"Our statute does provide for authority of the agencies to register exchanges that want to offer margined, leveraged, or financed crypto assets or other types of commodity trading so we're utilizing that authority to allow our existing exchanges to begin offering these products under a regulated framework," he said.

Selig added that the oversight is opt-in for exchanges that are not currently offering margin leveraged financing, which is not permitted under existing state regimes.

But the CFTC's new rules could face new scrutiny and oversight in 2027, with Democrats set to take control of the House and Senate after the midterms. Selig told CNBC he hopes the U.S. won't see a wave of software developers moving offshore, as many crypto businesses threatened to do under the Biden administration.

"I really hope that we learned lessons from the last several years in this space," he said.

Crypto firms were at odds with Washington during the Biden administration, asking for clear operating rules, while also facing lawsuits brought by the SEC under former chair Gary Gensler's leadership. That shifted after President Donald Trump's 2024 victory.

"I do hope that we can work together with both sides of the aisle to protect software developers who want to do the right thing," Selig said, adding that those looking to commit crimes and engage in fraud should be held accountable.

When asked whether he's prepared for increased scrutiny from Congress in 2027, Selig said, "Congress will do its job investigating where it needs to investigate."

"I'm happy to answer any questions that Congress has for me just as I would answer Congress' questions today as I've done before hearing committees several times already," he said.

Selig has also faced heat from Democrats for his handling of prediction markets. In February, 23 Democratic senators sent a letter to Chairman Selig urging him to reverse the agency's greenlighting of prediction markets.

Selig has argued that prediction platforms are federally regulated as more states try to rein them in. The CFTC has sued several states to defend what the agency views as its exclusive jurisdiction to regulate event contracts, which it classifies as swaps.

"We're going to fight this up to the Supreme Court if that's where it's going," Selig said. "Our view on the statute is that we have exclusive jurisdiction over these markets, and I will not allow for states to go bring lawsuits against our exchanges, claiming that they're unlicensed gambling."