CFTC starts ‘crypto sprint’ with SEC following White House plans

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has launched a “crypto sprint” to begin implementing crypto-related recommendations the Trump administration released on Wednesday.

Acting CFTC chair Caroline Pham  said  on Friday that the agency would “work closely” with Securities and Exchange Commission chair Paul Atkins and Commissioner Hester Peirce on its “Project Crypto”  initiative announced on Thursday .

“The CFTC is wasting no time in fulfilling President Trump’s vision to make America the crypto capital of the world,” Pham said.

The initiatives are to implement agency-specific recommendations that US President Donald Trump’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets  made in a report  — which stemmed from Trump’s sweeping  crypto-related executive order  in January.

Crypto group makes 18 recommendations to CFTC

The President’s Working Group made 18 recommendations to the CFTC, two of which directly concerned the agency.

The first direct request to the CFTC was to advance a host of initiatives, including guidance on how cryptocurrencies could be considered commodities, how its registration requirements would work with decentralized finance and guidance to CFTC-regulated entities on what they can do with crypto.

The other standalone task for the agency was to consider how to amend rules to accommodate blockchain-based derivatives.

An additional 16 recommendations concerning the CFTC were tied up with other financial agencies, such as the SEC and the Treasury.

CFTC and SEC told to work together to police crypto

Some of the notable recommendations the CFTC and SEC were told to work together on included coordinating to create a rulemaking process and using “their existing authorities to provide fulsome regulatory clarity.”

The two agencies were also told they should create a regulatory sandbox and, longer term, should explore how to allow registrants to “offer multiple services within a single user interface.”

Several recommendations tasked Congress with carving out how the CFTC and SEC should divvy up regulating crypto, with the report saying the CFTC should be given “clear authority to regulate spot markets in non-security digital assets.”

CFTC says it’s already worked on crypto clarity

In a statement on Friday, Pham said the CFTC has already begun working to “deliver on the Administration’s promise to usher in a Golden Age of Crypto.”

The agency met with crypto executives earlier this year to discuss the industry and  has withdrawn  what it called “outdated staff advisories” relating to crypto.

It also recently wrapped up consultations on allowing 24/7 derivatives trading and perpetual contracts, a  move backed  by some crypto companies.

Trump has nominated Brian Quintenz, the global head of policy at Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto venture firm, to lead the CFTC.

He is awaiting a nomination hearing, which was slated to take place on Wednesday, but the Senate Agriculture Committee pulled it on  request from the White House .