RegulationAug 20, 2026

CFTC’s Selig: Agency Will Write Crypto Rules If CLARITY Act Misses 60 Votes

CFTC Chair Michael Selig says staff is already drafting leveraged-trading and developer rules to move fast if the Senate's CLARITY vote falls short.

Daniel Okoro

Policy & Regulation. Daniel reports on how lawmakers

3 min read

CFTC’s Selig: Agency Will Write Crypto Rules If CLARITY Act Misses 60 Votes

CFTC Chair Michael Selig has put a hard number on his patience with Congress: 60. That’s the vote threshold the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act needs to clear the Senate, and Selig told the agency’s inaugural Innovation Advisory Committee meeting on Thursday that if lawmakers can’t hit it, the CFTC will draft its own crypto market-structure rules without waiting.

Selig said he has already directed CFTC staff to begin exploring two concrete policy tracks: permitting both registered and non-registered entities to offer “crypto asset trading on a leveraged or margined basis,” and building out developer-protection frameworks. Those workstreams are running in parallel to the legislative process, not waiting on its outcome.

A September deadline hangs over CLARITY

The CLARITY Act is currently stalled until the Senate reconvenes in September, when Majority Leader John Thune is expected to schedule a cloture vote. Passing that vote requires 60 senators, after which the bill would return to the House before potentially reaching President Trump’s desk for signature or veto. That 60-vote bar is the practical bottleneck Selig is now building a contingency plan around.

“We’re going to give CLARITY its breathing room for a vote, but if the Democrats cannot support a bipartisan work product, which reflects compromises from both sides of the aisle, and ultimately send a fair version of the bill to the President’s desk, then rest assured, I will direct CFTC staff to move swiftly to propose these new rules for the industry,” Selig said.

Selig framed the agency’s fallback plan as a way to “help Trump deliver if Congress will not” — language that ties the CFTC’s rulemaking timeline directly to the White House’s own push on the bill. His remarks came one day after he stood alongside Trump and crypto industry executives at a White House meeting, where the president urged lawmakers to pass a “fair version” of CLARITY to keep the US “ahead of China.”

Why the leveraged-trading detail matters

The most consequential figure buried in Selig’s remarks isn’t a vote count — it’s the scope of the leverage rule staff is already exploring. Allowing both CFTC-registered and non-registered entities to offer margined or leveraged crypto trading would mark a meaningful expansion of who can legally provide derivative-style crypto products in the US, independent of whatever Congress ultimately decides on spot-market jurisdiction under CLARITY.

For traders, that distinction matters because CLARITY and CFTC rulemaking address overlapping but not identical territory: CLARITY would set the broader statutory line between CFTC and SEC jurisdiction over digital assets, while the CFTC’s own rules — which it can issue without Congress — would govern how leveraged products are structured and who can offer them in the meantime.

What comes next

Nothing changes immediately: the CFTC’s rules remain in an exploratory, pre-proposal stage, and Selig explicitly said the agency would let CLARITY have its shot at a Senate vote first. The real trigger is September, when Thune’s cloture vote will show whether CLARITY can find the 60 votes needed to survive — and whether Selig’s staff moves from exploring leverage and developer-protection rules to formally proposing them.

For crypto businesses and traders watching US market-structure policy, the practical takeaway is that regulatory clarity is coming one way or another: either through a negotiated statute with bipartisan Senate support, or through CFTC rulemaking that Selig has now signaled is ready to move “swiftly” the moment Congress stalls.