The new chairman of the US CFTC announces an innovative regulatory plan, marking the beginning of formal rulemaking for the $3 trillion crypto market

【BlockBeats】The new Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Mike Selig, recently announced significant news. On January 21, he posted on social media and in The Washington Post that the CFTC plans to promote a new rulemaking initiative, with the core goal of creating a “waterproof” regulatory framework for crypto assets and financial innovation—by formal legislative procedures to solidify the rules, making them less susceptible to easy overturning by subsequent governments.

What does this shift mean? Selig clearly stated that the CFTC will move away from the previous approach of “enforcing as regulation” and instead tailor formal rules for emerging fields such as digital assets, prediction markets, and perpetual contracts. He emphasized in the article that the digital asset economy has evolved from being a “strange thing” into a real market worth approximately $3 trillion. The U.S. financial market needs to maintain its leading position in global competition, which can no longer be managed with temporary measures.

What are the specific steps? The CFTC will establish an Innovation Advisory Committee to provide guidance on financial innovations, including crypto assets. They have also hired crypto lawyer Michael Passalacqua to participate in related work. Although specific regulatory details have not yet been announced, Selig stated that more policy adjustments will be released gradually over the coming days.

Selig also emphasized one point—regulatory policies formed through the formal rulemaking process are far more stable than informal guidance, which means the crypto industry may finally gain a more long-term and predictable regulatory environment. From this statement, it appears that the CFTC is poised to become the most important regulatory body for the U.S. crypto market, reflecting the current U.S. government’s overall support for crypto innovation.