CFTC Sends Crypto Rulemaking Plan to the White House, Bypassing Congress

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) submitted a new crypto market rulemaking proposal to the White House on September 17, sidestepping Congress after the CLARITY Act stalled in the Senate a week earlier. The same day, the SEC opened a separate path for tokenized stock trading, giving exchanges, wallets, and other software providers their first real guidance for the months ahead.

CFTC Sends Its Rulemaking Plan to the White House

The CFTC sent its crypto market rulemaking proposal to the White House Office of Management and Budget on Thursday, September 17. Details of the document were not disclosed. It remains unclear which crypto assets it covers, what exchanges would need to do to comply, or how far the commission believes its authority extends.

The move came directly after the CLARITY Act failed to advance in the Senate earlier in the week. The bill was meant to settle which assets count as commodities under CFTC oversight and which count as securities under the SEC. It fell short of the votes needed, despite more than a year of work and high hopes from market participants. Without such a law, exchanges are still left guessing which regulator oversees any given token.

"The CFTC is locked in and ready to ship its rules for the new frontier of finance."

- Mike Selig, CFTC Chair, in a post on X from September 16, 2026

The agency is now showing it can move without a standalone law from Congress. The CFTC has issued similar guidance under its existing authority before, so this step continues a strategy rather than starting a new one. The proposal now heads to OMB review before returning to the commission itself.

SEC Opens a Path for Tokenized Stocks

That same Thursday, the SEC announced a five-year conditional exemption for qualifying platforms: they can offer onchain trading of tokenized stocks without registering as a securities exchange. That status previously required a full license, a process that can take years and cost millions in legal fees.

Both the CFTC and SEC publicly confirmed plans to keep working together on crypto market rules under their existing authority, without waiting for the CLARITY Act or any other law from Congress. For platforms looking to launch tokenized stocks, the five-year window buys time to test the product in practice while permanent rules are still being written. For traders, it means more options to trade stocks outside normal exchange hours, though the actual tools available will depend on which platform secures approval.

Wallets and Exchanges Get a Temporary Rulebook

On Friday, September 18, the CFTC also published a no-action letter for providers of passive software, including crypto wallet interfaces. These services can now connect users to regulated derivatives markets without registering as introducing brokers, a step that had previously been one of the main barriers for small developer teams.

The conditions are fairly specific. A provider can display markets, let users submit orders directly to registered firms, and collect transaction-based fees. What it cannot do is hold customer assets, generate buy or sell signals, or control how orders are routed. Providers also have to disclose risks to users, keep records of activity, and follow separate CFTC marketing rules.

The relief stays in place only until the CFTC adopts formal rules on registering software developers. It is an interim status, not a permanent one, and the agency says so directly. Still, for wallets and small fintech teams, even temporary certainty beats the years of ambiguity they lived with, where a routine app feature could put them on the wrong side of the law.

Why This Isn't a Done Deal Yet

The CFTC's plan is only the first step in a long process. OMB has to review the draft, after which it goes back to the commission for a vote and public comment period. Making the rules effective will require another vote, and the law sets no deadline for any of it, so the whole cycle could easily stretch a year or more.

Plenty remains unresolved.

• Which crypto assets fall under the CFTC's new rules has not been disclosed.
• Compliance requirements for exchanges and platforms have not been published.
• The public comment period could run for months and reshape the draft beyond recognition.
• The CLARITY Act could still return to Congress and override some of the authority the CFTC is claiming now.

For exchanges and wallets, that means operating under temporary guidance today while staying ready to overhaul their processes if Congress eventually passes its own law. Lawyers at major platforms are likely already rewriting compliance procedures for two parallel scenarios at once.

What Happens Next for CLARITY Act and the Market

Bitcoin traded above $80,000 that same day, and shares of public crypto companies recovered from the drop triggered by the CLARITY Act's failure earlier in the week. Layer-2 and DeFi tokens outpaced the broader market that day, suggesting traders were reacting not just to regulators but also to fading nerves around the Fed's rate decision.

Traders showed no sign of treating the CFTC news as a reason to sell, reading the commission's and the SEC's moves instead as a sign that regulation is advancing regardless of Congress. Investor Kevin O'Leary expects Congress to revisit the CLARITY Act early next year, alongside a separate crypto tax bill moving through the chamber.

Until then, exchanges, wallets, and tokenized asset platforms will operate under rules the CFTC and SEC are writing on their own, relying on authority they already hold. For holders of Bitcoin and other assets, that means one thing: legal certainty is arriving not through an act of Congress but document by document, straight from the regulators. The market appears to have already priced that scenario in.