Caroline Pham, acting chair of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), confirmed a report from CoinDesk that the agency is in direct talks with regulated exchanges to launch spot crypto trading, including leveraged offerings, as soon as next month.
Pham confirmed the report in a post on X, writing, "True," in reference to the CoinDesk report published Sunday morning, even as the federal government shutdown delays other crypto policy initiatives.
According to the report, Pham has held talks with CFTC-regulated designated contracts markets (DCMs) exchanges, a list that includes finance giants CME, Cboe Futures Exchange, and ICE Futures along with crypto-native firms like Coinbase Derivatives and prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket US, about launching spot crypto trading products involving margin, leverage, and financing.
"As we continue to work with Congress on bringing legislative clarity to these markets, we are also using existing authorities to swiftly implement recommendations in the President's Working Group on Digital Asset Markets report," Pham told CoinDesk in a statement.
The initiative marks a significant shift in how U.S. regulators are approaching crypto markets. Rather than waiting for Congressional action to grant the CFTC explicit authority over spot crypto markets, Pham is leveraging existing provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act that require retail trading of commodities with leverage, margin, or financing to occur on regulated exchanges.
Leveraged spot crypto trading would allow investors to borrow funds to amplify their positions in digital assets like bitcoin and ether, potentially multiplying both gains and losses. In these products, traders typically put up a portion of the total trade value as collateral, known as margin, while the exchange or broker provides financing for the remainder. For example, with 5x leverage, a trader could control $5,000 worth of bitcoin with just $1,000 of their own capital.
While such products have been widely available on offshore crypto exchanges for years, offering them on CFTC-regulated platforms would bring institutional-grade oversight, risk management standards, and investor protections to leveraged crypto trading in the U.S. market for the first time.
Turnover at the CFTC?
Though the CFTC typically has five commissioners, usually representing different political affiliations, Pham is currently the sole commissioner, with the other seats vacant, giving her increased authority to steer the federal agency.
Pham is moving forward despite the government shutdown's delay of the expected confirmation of Trump nominee Mike Selig, currently chief counsel for the SEC's Crypto Task Force, as head of the agency. Selig was selected by Trump after the President's previous nominee, Brian Quintenz, was dropped from consideration after some high-profile members of the crypto industry lobbied against his appointment, including a16z crypto and Gemini founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss.
According to the CoinDesk report, Pham is expected to join global crypto payments firm MoonPay as chief legal officer and chief administrative officer following her CFTC tenure. Pham's confirmation post did not specifically address the MoonPay plans mentioned in the CoinDesk report; The Block could not immediately reach Pham or the CFTC for comment.
The initiative also aligns with a September joint guidance from the SEC and CFTC, which clarified that registered exchanges are not prohibited from facilitating trading of certain spot commodity products, including crypto assets.
"The joint statement from the SEC and CFTC today gives major U.S. exchanges the green light to offer spot trading on leading digital assets," Two Prime Digital Assets CEO Alexander Blume said in an email to The Block at the time. "This opens the door for even more mainstream adoption, granting direct access to these commodity assets at venues where trillions of dollars already reside."
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