CFTC Chair Selig says he wants to set up “voluntary registration” for crypto exchanges, and within an hour, JUST IN accounts had reposted it verbatim all over the feed. Hate to be a downer, but the key word is “voluntary.”
The CLARITY Act passed the House last July, but got stuck in the Senate last month. The CFTC isn’t waiting around, so it’s opening a door on its own. The question is: who’ll walk through it? Offshore exchanges don’t cater to U.S. retail traders looking for leverage in the first place, so they have no reason to voluntarily sign up for things like segregating customer funds and market surveillance. The ones likely to line up are basically the few already looking to legally offer leveraged trading to U.S. retail customers—and all they’re waiting for is a license they can put on their marketing materials.
So this is good news for licensed platforms and major exchanges that can absorb the cost of compliance—not for the altcoins you’re holding. There’s no rulebook or timeline yet, just “we’re working on it.”
Breaking-news accounts translate “in the works” into “the U.S. fully embraces crypto” because it drives traffic. There are two things to watch for: whether they publish the registration requirements and fees, and whether any major exchange publicly says it plans to apply. Until then, this is just talk.
#CFTC #CryptoRegulation
The CLARITY Act passed the House last July, but got stuck in the Senate last month. The CFTC isn’t waiting around, so it’s opening a door on its own. The question is: who’ll walk through it? Offshore exchanges don’t cater to U.S. retail traders looking for leverage in the first place, so they have no reason to voluntarily sign up for things like segregating customer funds and market surveillance. The ones likely to line up are basically the few already looking to legally offer leveraged trading to U.S. retail customers—and all they’re waiting for is a license they can put on their marketing materials.
So this is good news for licensed platforms and major exchanges that can absorb the cost of compliance—not for the altcoins you’re holding. There’s no rulebook or timeline yet, just “we’re working on it.”
Breaking-news accounts translate “in the works” into “the U.S. fully embraces crypto” because it drives traffic. There are two things to watch for: whether they publish the registration requirements and fees, and whether any major exchange publicly says it plans to apply. Until then, this is just talk.
#CFTC #CryptoRegulation