CFTC Chair Selig Says Regulator Is Preparing for ‘24-7, On-Chain’ Markets
Bitcoin Magazine CFTC Chair Selig Says Regulator Is Preparing for ‘24-7, On-Chain’ Markets Mike Selig has said that the CFTC is looking forward to “exciting” crypto and AI markets as the agency press...
Mike Selig has said that the CFTC is looking forward to “exciting” crypto and AI markets as the agency presses on without the Clarity Act.
Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Mike Selig has said that the regulator was preparing for the transition of markets moving “24-7, on-chain.”
Speaking to CNBC on Wednesday, the regulator said that it was an exciting time to be regulating markets related to crypto and artificial intelligence.
The CFTC is fast pushing ahead with rulemaking for the crypto space, despite lawmakers last week blocking the long-awaited Clarity Act. Following the vote on the landmark crypto legislation, Selig said that the watchdog would still help U.S. President Trump “get the job done” in regulating digital assets.
“Our markets are rapidly evolving,” Selig said. “We really have to reevaluate all of our rules and regulations to make sure that we’re ready and prepared for this transition to 24-7 on-chain and these automated markets that are facilitated through the use of algorithms and agentic finance.”
The Clarity Act wants to formally divide oversight between regulators, distinguishing which digital assets are securities, commodities or stablecoins.
But the bill stalled and stumbled this year as the banking lobby had issues with crypto companies paying customers stablecoin rewards and some lawmakers — mostly Democrats — were concerned about the ethics side of the legislation.
Trump received backing from major industry players while campaigning and since becoming president, his family has made money from digital asset ventures.
Some lawmakers have alleged conflicts of interest; the White House has always denied any wrongdoing.
Despite lawmakers blocking the Clarity Act, the CFTC and Securities and Exchange Commission have charged ahead with rulemaking. The CFTC last week sent a proposal to the White House to regulate crypto transactions and markets.
And the SEC went ahead and approved tokenized stocks trading the same week. In August, it also proposed its own framework for crypto asset offerings, pressing ahead while the landmark legislation stalled.
Formerly chief counsel at the SEC’s Crypto Task Force, Selig was described by White House’s Crypto and AI Tsar, David Sacks, as “instrumental in driving forward the President’s crypto agenda”
President Trump in August urged lawmakers to get the Clarity Act over the line, referring to the legislation as “very, very powerful.”
Asanat Analysis — Why it matters
The CFTC chair's acknowledgment that the regulator is 'preparing' for 24/7 on-chain markets signals an implicit acceptance that crypto trading infrastructure will remain continuous and decentralized—a structural reality the agency cannot prevent, only adapt to. This framing represents a rhetorical shift from earlier enforcement-focused rhetoric toward operational readiness, suggesting the regulator is building surveillance and compliance frameworks designed for markets that don't close.
The timing matters: by 2026, spot Bitcoin ETFs, institutional onramps, and perpetual DEX volumes have normalized on-chain trading as a core market microstructure. Selig's statement acknowledges this irreversibility rather than threatening disruption. The mention of AI markets alongside crypto hints at cross-jurisdictional complexity—AI inference and oracle data feeds create new attack surfaces that traditional market surveillance tools weren't built to monitor, forcing the CFTC to upgrade its technical infrastructure or risk regulatory arbitrage.
For practitioners, this suggests the CFTC will likely pursue real-time on-chain monitoring, position-tracking via wallet clustering, and potentially new reporting standards for perpetual and derivatives protocols. Smaller protocols and unregistered derivatives venues face higher compliance friction, while regulated venues with robust reporting pipelines may gain competitive moats. The statement is less a policy announcement than a visibility signal—the agency is no longer dismissing on-chain settlement as illegitimate.