The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is offering US crypto exchanges a federal route to retail leverage as Congress remains stalled on market-structure legislation.

On Oct. 5, the financial regulatory agency opened rulemaking for Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions (CTX) and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets (CAM), which would create a national framework for platforms offering retail customers margined, leveraged, or financed crypto trading.

Participation would remain optional for ordinary spot exchanges because the agency acknowledges it cannot compel the broader crypto market onto CFTC-regulated venues without congressional action. The incentive is access to leveraged products that state money-transmitter licensing alone does not provide.

The initiative gives the CFTC a way to use authority it says already exists under the Commodity Exchange Act while Congress has yet to enact comprehensive legislation governing crypto spot markets.

The framework would effectively create three regulatory paths depending on what an exchange wants to offer US customers.

Ordinary spot exchanges could remain primarily under state licensing regimes, supplemented by the CFTC’s existing anti-fraud and anti-manipulation authority.

Platforms offering leveraged or financed retail crypto transactions could seek federal registration under the new framework, while venues offering futures, perpetuals and other derivatives would remain under the agency’s existing designated contract market regime.

The structure would allow existing designated contract markets to offer CTXs under tailored rules while giving crypto platforms another route into federal supervision without requiring them to operate as conventional derivatives exchanges.

The CFTC is relying on Section 2(c)(2)(D) of the Commodity Exchange Act, which covers certain leveraged retail commodity transactions.

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