The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) indicated that it was prepared to continue to advance some of the digital asset market structure rules even if Congress failed to adopt the CLARITY Act. This means that parts of the United States encrypted regulatory framework may first be landed within existing statutory powers.

According to the Chairman of CTC, Michael Selig, the code of encrypted market structure will not depend entirely on the outcome of the bill. However, he did not indicate which draft rules had been completed or when they might be formally issued.

Part of the rule may be advanced within existing competence

Currently, CFTC primarily regulates futures, options and swaps related derivatives markets for digital assets, while also having enforcement powers over fraud and manipulation in spot commodity transactions. But in terms of encrypted spot trading platforms, the CTC does not have the same day-to-day supervisory powers as the regulatory registered derivatives platform.

This means that, in the absence of new legislative mandates, the rules that the CTC can advance will remain within the framework of the existing Merchandise Trading Act. Rules relating to registered derivative platforms, intermediaries, information disclosure requirements or encrypted futures could theoretically be pursued individually, while a nationwide regulatory framework for encrypted spot markets would still require legislative support from Congress.

For United States investors, this distinction relates to which regulator is ultimately responsible for the trading platform. CLARITY Act proposes to establish a registration system for selected digital commodity exchanges and to divide responsibility for digital asset control between CFTC and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Clarity Act, September.

The Senate majority leader, John Thune, had filed a procedural motion before the parliamentary recess in August. Under the current arrangement, the relevant procedural vote would be held on 15 September, and the bill would require 60 votes to proceed.

Even if the Senate adopts a procedural vote, it is only at the stage of formal consideration, and there may be a subsequent debate, amendment and final vote. The Chamber of Deputies adopted its version in July 2025 and the Senate Banking Commission advanced its text in May 2026. If there are discrepancies between the two court versions, further coordination is required.

At present, negotiations within the Congress on the DeFi approach, the ethical requirements of public officials and the limits on the incentive to stabilize the money are still pending. Data from the projected market for Polymarket show that by mid-August, the probability of the Act becoming law in 2026 had fallen below 20 per cent, a marked fall from 82 per cent in February.

CFTC synchronise with SEC advance side issues

The first CFTC meeting of the Advisory Committee on Innovation was held on 20 August. The agenda included digital assets, artificial intelligence in financial markets and forecasting markets. The meeting will discuss customer protection, market integrity and what actions the CTC can take under existing legal authority.

At the same time, the SEC is also promoting separate rules relating to encrypted issuance and tokenized securities. The President of Securitize, Brett RedFearn, stated that the SEC had previously withdrawn an innovative exemption programme for reasons related to the CIA Act voting node on 15 September. He expected the programme to be relaunched after the Senate vote.

CFTC's still asking for an AI algorithm derivative.

In addition to the issue of encryption, on August 19, the CTC made a public consultation on derivatives linked to artificial intelligence algorithms. The consultancy documents cover issues such as liquidity, reference prices, manipulation risks, customer protection, and whether to allow the introduction of a permanent calculus future.

Selig stated that better calculus derivatives markets were needed if the United States was to maintain its advantage in AI competition. According to the paper, the relevant contract may in the future track the rental cost of a given GPU, such as Nvidia H100 or Blackwell B200, or anchor a certain size of AI reasoning.

However, the request for comments does not imply that the relevant products have been approved or that the exchange can immediately go online.