White House Crypto Report Recommends Expanding CFTC’s Role in Crypto Regulation – Crypto News

The Trump administration’s new digital asset policy report, released Thursday, July 30, calls for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to have an expanded role in order to oversee crypto markets alongside other regulators, echoing proposals in the crypto market structure bill making its way through Congress.

Titled “Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology,” the report was authored by the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, and recommends giving the CFTC authority over spot markets for non-security tokens such as Bitcoin (BTC), which is currently trading at around $118,000. For context, the CFTC typically oversees derivatives markets — not spot markets.

The report argues that the CFTC should work closely alongside the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to collaborate on overseeing crypto markets, and says the U.S. needs clear, flexible rules to stay competitive. It also calls on Congress to better define the roles of the two agencies, and should let the CFTC clearly take the lead for crypto assets that are not considered securities.

“Congress should enact legislation that grants the Commodity Futures Trading Commission clear authority to regulate spot markets in non-security digital assets,” the report reads. “This legislation should permit both market regulators’ registrants to engage in multiple business lines under the most efficient licensing structure possible.”

The move also lines up with the broader crypto market structure-focused CLARITY Act, a draft bill that would shift primary crypto oversight from the SEC to the CFTC, and also encourage the two regulators to align and coordinate more. Supporters say this would bring clearer rules and cut down on regulation by enforcement.

The latest version of the CLARITY Act — which was recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives but is awaiting passage by the Senate — states that the CFTC would have “exclusive jurisdiction with respect to any account, agreement, contract, or transaction involving a contract of sale of a digital commodity or tradable asset in interstate commerce, including in a digital commodity or tradable asset (as so defined) cash or spot market, that is offered, solicited, traded, facilitated, executed, cleared, reported….”

This recommendation comes as the rapidly growing cryptocurrency market recently surpassed $4 trillion in market capitalization. Meanwhile, total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (DeFi) currently stands at $192 billion, up 68% from $114 billion since April, per DefiLlama data.

Experts Remain Cautious

Despite anticipation around the report, some experts remain cautious about the pace of meaningful change.

Kyle Chassé, Founder of MV Global, said in comments shared with The Defiant that the report “doesn’t break much new ground.”

“Most of the recommendations simply echo provisions already found in existing bills circulating in Congress,” Chassé added. “There’s still a massive gap between outlining principles and taking real, market-moving action.”

Specifically, some in the industry have expressed disappointment that the report did not provide new details on the U.S. government’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve — established by Executive Order in March — especially around the government’s plan to expand the Reserve.

Referencing the mandate in President Trump’s EO to explore “acquiring” more Bitcoin for the Strategic Reserve in “budget neutral” ways, Chassé argued: “We should reprice gold now. We could sell surplus federal assets — even our $3 billion cheese reserves — and get serious about securing a position in the best-performing asset of the past 15 years.” Chassé continued:

“Are we really going to let corporations and other sovereigns front-run the U.S. on this? If we want to make America the Crypto Capital of the World, we need to stop narrating and start executing.”

During an interview on Crypto in America yesterday, Bo Hines, the Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, was vague when responding to a question about updates on the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Hines said the government was continuing to explore “budget neutral ways” for “accumulation,” as outlined in the EO, and stated:

“Well look, we have it. It’s been established through executive order […] We also have the […] digital assets national stockpile,” he said, adding that Bitcoin “is in a class of its own and everyone recognizes that.” He also dodged a question about how much BTC the U.S. government currently holds from asset forfeitures.