- CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said on 22 September that U.S. markets must be readied for “mass tokenisation”, onchain finance and 24/7 trading.
- The CFTC added certain payment stablecoins issued by national trust banks to its eligible collateral list in February and plans further steps to encourage stablecoin adoption.
- Selig said crypto and precious metals may suit 24/7 trading now while agricultural, energy and some financial products may not, as the agency weighs longer trading hours.
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Michael Selig said on Tuesday that U.S. markets must be readied for “mass tokenisation”, telling the U.S. Treasury Market Conference in New York that the next decade will likely bring more change to financial markets than the previous several decades combined.
That work includes “tailoring legacy frameworks” so blockchains and artificial intelligence “can be adopted at scale”, Selig said.
“If the question is, will the United States continue leading in these markets, then I say, yes, we will”, he stated, crediting the Trump administration with “embracing innovation, encouraging competition, rightsizing regulation”.
Selig, who took over the CFTC in December 2025 and launched an innovation task force spanning crypto, AI and prediction markets in March, said daily Treasury futures turnover has grown from roughly US$200 billion (AU$282 billion) to US$900 billion (AU$1.27 trillion) over the past 20 years.
Nearly half of the US$1.2 quadrillion (AU$1.69 quadrillion) in notional global derivatives now falls under CFTC oversight, he noted.
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Stablecoins as Collateral
The CFTC expanded its list of eligible tokenised collateral in February to include certain payment stablecoins issued by national trust banks and released FAQs on tokenised collateral in March, Selig noted.
The Commission “is committed to finding additional ways to encourage responsible stablecoin adoption for market participants, exchanges, and clearinghouses”, he added.
He repeated his view that high-quality tokenised collateral “has the potential to make liquidity more dynamic and markets more resilient”.
Just as the transition from hand signals to electronic trading advanced our financial system, I believe tokenization can do the same for all asset classes.
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig The CFTC “will not take a one-size-fits-all approach to 24/7 trading”, Selig stated. Crypto and precious metals “may currently be suitable for 24/7 trading”, he said, while agricultural products, energy and certain financials may not.
The CLARITY Act market-structure bill fell short of the 60 votes it needed to advance in the Senate on 15 September, and Selig posted on X the next day that the CFTC is “locked in and ready to ship its rules for the new frontier of finance”.
The SEC issued its Innovation Exemption allowing permissioned venues to trade certain tokenised U.S. stocks onchain on 17 September.
Read more: AI Agents Could Put Blockchain Blockspace to the Ultimate Stress Test
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