Following the longest US government shutdown on record, a strong showing of attendees at FIA Expo listened to a panel of staffers from the US House Committee on Agriculture, the National Futures Association and industry lobbyists who discussed the future of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the likelihood of Congress passing crypto market legislation.
CFTC commissioner(s)
With Expo taking place in the days before the nomination hearing of Mike Selig, currently a lawyer at the US Securities and Exchange Commission, to chair the CFTC, several panellists agreed that he would clear the Senate Agriculture Committee and secure enough floor votes by the full Senate to be confirmed by the end of the year. (Selig subsequently cleared the committee on a 12-11 party-line vote.)
Earlier this year, the Senate Republicans in the majority changed the chamber’s rules to allow packages of nominations (hundreds, at times) to pass collectively. Importantly, this change requires only a simple majority, rather than the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster. The Republican leadership has indicated they intend to push through one more package of nominees before the close of 2025.
Currently operating with only one commissioner who also serves as Acting Chair, the CFTC has made headlines for lacking a full slate of commissioners. Typically, the agency has three commissioners in the same political party as the US President and two commissioners from the other party.
While President Donald Trump nominated a full slate in his first term, he has not indicated if he will move forward with additional names for the CFTC. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also has not put forth any nominees for the agency, as usually happens.
Notably, the statute that guides the CFTC does not require a quorum of more than one commissioner. As Clark Ogilvie, deputy staff director for the House Committee on Agriculture for the Democrats and a former chief of staff at the agency, said: “CEA section 283 basically says a vacancy on the commission does not prevent the chair or any remaining commissioners from exercising the full authority of the commission. And that's never been challenged in court.”
Ogilvie added context to the argument that the public benefits from a full commission. “You want to have different backgrounds, different perspectives, both Republican and Democrat. Because when you have that confluence of views, issues get aired out, they get discussed, and people feel they get heard. Therefore, rulemaking is better.”
He noted it also prevents dramatic policy swings when the parties in power switch.
A merger in the offing?
The idea of merging the SEC and CFTC gained momentum at the start of the Trump administration and continued to grab headlines, most recently at the SEC-CFTC roundtable on regulatory harmonisation in September.
Paul Balzano, a professional staff member on the House Committee on Agriculture for the Republicans, noted that the path to a merger faces significant challenges. “Merging the agencies would take an act of Congress. I think that's incredibly difficult. I also think that there has not been a very good articulation of the value of merging the two agencies. It's a lot more complicated than just giving the SEC authority over the Commodity Exchange Act. That doesn't really solve the problems that people have identified with the two agencies.”
Lee Brenner, head of public policy and digital assets at Goldman Sachs, shed more light on some of those issues. “Because so many clients are touching different assets that are regulated by both agencies, it's important that there is coordination and integration. Whether or not it's the full integration of the two agencies, just more coordination between them would be welcome.”
Coming soon: Market structure legislation to regulate crypto
Both Republicans and Democrats have expressed strong interest in passing crypto market structure legislation before the 2026 midterms.
Julia Hueckel, director for regulatory policy at Coinbase, described why Congress is considering the legislation.
“Market structure is the most durable and comprehensive way to provide clarity to US market participants who want to trade in digital assets. It's really answering three core questions. The first is, what are these digital assets? Are they securities? Are they commodities? Are they something else? Securities are regulated by the SEC today, commodities, at least in digital, are regulated at the state level.”
She then provided context on why the current landscape for digital commodities is complicated and stifles new market participants.
“Having licences in every single state that you operate in is burdensome. It is confusing to customers. For smaller innovators who want to come into the space, that can be a barrier to entry. So, creating a federal regime at the CFTC – and clarifying that the CFTC has spot authority – is another core part of market structure.”
She went on to add the third component: what does it mean that the CFTC has authority over spot trading of commodities and how will the agency regulate those products?
While the Senate has offered an outline of its legislation, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the CLARITY Act earlier in 2025. The House Agriculture Committee’s Balzano pointed out its goals.
“It was intended to provide a framework for certain participants in a spot market. That's the difference, an important difference [related to] the futures market. You have to trade futures on exchange. In a spot market we generally don't have federal regulation of market participants. The crypto market is different. We have these large intermediaries that behave like exchanges. They hold customer funds; they have control over customer orders. That's a lot different than most of the other ways in which spot commodities trade,” Balzano said.
“Ultimately, having a law that describes exactly what we want, who has to register, and why they have to register is a cleaner and more durable solution than trying to fit it in under existing authorities.”
The panellists agreed that a priority on Congress’s to-do list is advancing the market-structure legislation to provide the appropriate guardrails and oversight for these new markets.
