CFTC Joins Forces with SEC's 'Project Crypto' Initiative
In a collaborative effort announced Thursday, CFTC's Michael Selig and SEC's Paul Atkins convened for a joint regulatory event focused on creating unified crypto oversight standards.
The chair of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Michael Selig, has revealed that his agency will collaborate with the Securities and Exchange Commission's Project Crypto initiative.
During prepared statements for a discussion between the SEC and CFTC focused on aligning their regulatory strategies for digital assets, Selig revealed the CFTC's intention to partner with the SEC on Project Crypto, a program initiated in July designed to provide regulatory clarity for the digital asset sector.
The CFTC chair outlined that this collaborative partnership is designed to "advance a clear crypto asset taxonomy, clarify jurisdictional lines, remove duplicative compliance requirements, and reduce regulatory fragmentation."
"Fragmented oversight imposes real economic costs—raising barriers to entry, reducing competition, increasing compliance expenses, and encouraging regulatory arbitrage rather than productive investment. Recognizing this, I intend for the CFTC to work closely with the SEC to identify opportunities to better align regulatory requirements across markets."
Michael Selig, CFTC Chair
The agency's goal, according to Selig, "is not to blur statutory boundaries, but to reduce unnecessary duplication that does not improve market integrity."
These statements from Selig came after the Senate Agriculture Committee proceeded with a party-line vote on Thursday to move forward with a digital asset market structure bill, which is anticipated to define the respective regulatory responsibilities of the SEC and CFTC in cryptocurrency oversight.
Amid ongoing Congressional efforts on the legislation, Selig indicated that both regulatory bodies will collaborate to "modernize and harmonize their approach to regulation to future-proof [US] markets for the innovations of tomorrow."
This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.