CFTC Submits Crypto Market Rulemaking to White House After Senate Rejects CLARITY Act

CFTC Sends Rules

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission submitted a crypto market rulemaking to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on September 17, 2026, two days after the Senate rejected the CLARITY Act by a narrow vote of 49 to 50. The filing is identified on Reginfo.gov as RIN 3038-AF80 and is titled “Regulation of Crypto Asset Transactions and Crypto Asset Markets,” and its contents remain confidential while under review.

CFTC chairman Michael Selig said on the day of the Senate vote that the agency was “locked in and ready to ship rules,” and just two days later it delivered the filing. The submission is described as a prerule stage that is not formally proposed, with the process framed as an advance notice that “is not something that exchanges can currently comply with.”

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OIRA Review Path

After the CFTC’s submission, the next step is OIRA review inside the Office of Management and Budget, and the draft would return to the CFTC for a vote and public comment once the Office of Management and Budget reviews it. Executive Order 12866 is cited as giving the White House up to 90 days to review, with a one-time extension of up to 30 days, and the process is described as including a commission vote before publication and a comment period typically lasting 60 days.

Altcoin Buzz says the CFTC’s rulemaking text has not been disclosed, and it adds that “none of the rulemaking's text has been disclosed: which crypto assets would be covered” remains unknown. The CFTC’s chair also previously laid out a plan to explore rules that would “codify a CFTC market structure for crypto assets using the agency’s existing authorities,” including a registration category described as a type of DCM known as a “crypto asset market.”

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What Changes, What Doesn’t

For retail users, Altcoin Buzz says that “nothing in the filing changes what a retail user can or cannot do with a derivatives account,” even as the CFTC moves toward a potential crypto asset market designation.

The same coverage ties the CFTC’s push to the Senate’s CLARITY Act failure and notes that the SEC also issued a five-year conditional “innovation exemption” for qualifying tokenized-stock platforms.

Cointelegraph reports that the CFTC’s filing “was received on Sept. 17 and is listed at the “prerule” stage,” and it emphasizes that the filing does not disclose details of the planned regulation.

In parallel, the CFTC issued no-action relief for passive software providers, and CoinDesk frames it as allowing certain passive software providers, including some crypto wallet interfaces, to connect users with regulated derivatives markets without registering as introducing brokers under conditions.

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