SEC and CFTC Formalize Joint 'Project Crypto' as CFTC Reopens Event-Contract Rules
The agencies are set to memorialize coordination through a formal memorandum to provide near-term certainty.
Overview
- CFTC Chair Michael Selig withdrew a 2024 proposal and a 2025 advisory that restricted political and sports event contracts and directed staff to draft a new rulemaking and reassess related litigation.
- Project Crypto now operates as a coordinated SEC–CFTC program focused on a shared crypto-asset taxonomy to clarify securities versus commodities and reduce duplicative compliance.
- Officials signaled a forthcoming memorandum of understanding to lock in data sharing, joint surveillance, weekly leadership calls, and coordinated rulemaking.
- Early priorities include safe-harbor concepts for software developers, guidance on tokenized collateral, clearer rules for leveraged crypto trading, and steps to onshore novel derivatives such as perpetuals.
- Regulators plan near-term actions under existing authority as Congress advances market-structure legislation, with the Senate Agriculture Committee voting 12–11 to move its bill and the White House hosting industry talks.