CFTC crypto rulemaking: comments due 14 December 2026

The CFTC comment deadline on its planned rules for retail crypto trading is Monday 14 December 2026, according to the notice as printed in the Federal Register. Until then, anyone can send the Commodity Futures Trading Commission written views on its advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) titled “Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets”, filed under RIN 3038-AF80. Comments go online through Regulations.gov, by post or by courier to the agency in Washington. Filing is free.

This page is about the deadline and how to take part. What the notice proposes, and why it arrived after the CLARITY Act stalled in the Senate, is in our report on the CFTC consultation.

Why the date is 14 December and not 12 December

Publication in the Federal Register came on 13 October 2026 (document 2026-20888, 91 FR 64811). The CFTC press release of 5 October gave no calendar date: it said comments had to be received within 60 days of publication. Counted from 13 October, the 60th day is a Saturday, 12 December.

The printed text settles it. Its DATES line reads: “Comments must be received on or before December 14, 2026.” That is the Monday after the 60th day. The earlier public-inspection copy of the same text, put online on 9 October, still carried a placeholder for the date. The law firms Sidley Austin and Greenberg Traurig give 14 December too, in client notes dated 13 and 14 October.

No cut-off hour is printed. The text says “on or before” the date, without a time or a time zone, and we do not know how late on 14 December the Regulations.gov form will take a filing. A comment sent a few days early avoids the question.

What the CFTC asks in its crypto ANPRM

An ANPRM comes before a proposed rule. There is no rule text yet. The Commission sets out a preliminary reading of the law, asks whether that reading holds, and lists its questions in sections IV and V of a notice that runs to 30 printed pages (pages 64811 to 64840). It says it wants comment “on all aspects” of the notice, and it also takes remarks that answer none of its questions.

The questions are numbered with roman numerals inside lettered subsections, so a comment can point to the exact one it answers, for example IV.C.ii. Several of them ask commenters to name the specific CFTC rule that causes a problem and to propose an alternative. A letter that does that is easier for staff to use than a general statement of support or opposition.

Section IV: “offer” and “actual delivery” (Regulation CTX)

CTX is the notice’s label for a retail crypto transaction made on a leveraged, margined or financed basis. Section IV.B tests the Commission’s reading of the word “offer”. One question asks whether that reading leaves an exchange a commercially viable way to stay out of CTXs and keep operating under state rules. Another asks whether giving retail customers access to onchain “vaults” from the same screen where they buy crypto could count as an offer of financing.

Section IV.C turns to “actual delivery”, the test that decides when a customer really holds the coins. Here the CFTC writes that it “preliminarily understands” trades on onchain protocols typically give the buyer possession and control. Users and developers of decentralized exchanges are the obvious people to confirm or contest that. The details of the delivery test are covered in our news report.

Section V: the new crypto asset market (Regulation CAM)

Section V is longer and more technical. It concerns a Crypto Asset Market (CAM), a new subcategory of designated contract market (DCM), and runs from V.A to V.H. Subsection B goes through the core principles a CAM would follow: listing standards and manipulation, position limits, trade reporting, trade execution, operational risk and proof of reserves. C and D deal with leverage arrangements and margin. E covers futures commission merchants (FCMs) and introducing brokers, including how an FCM’s net capital rules would apply. F is about clearing through derivatives clearing organisations (DCOs), G about firms holding several CFTC registrations.

The last subsection, V.H, deals with designation and exemptions. That is where the CFTC asks about a de minimis threshold for small venues, and where its final question asks how non-fungible tokens should be treated under the Commodity Exchange Act.

One more issue matters most to exchanges licensed by the states. Sidley Austin notes that the Commission preliminarily believes federal rules on CTXs would override conflicting state law, with the scope of that preemption still uncertain. The same fault line runs through the federal lawsuit against Utah over Kalshi.

How to comment on the CFTC rulemaking

Responses are invited from “all interested parties”, and the notice names state-regulated crypto exchanges, DCMs, FCMs, DCOs, financial institutions, technology firms, trade associations, and retail and institutional investors. It sets no nationality condition, so in our reading a trader in France, Italy or Nigeria can file like a US firm. Use one of the three methods below, not several.

• Online, the method the CFTC encourages: on Regulations.gov, press “Search”, tick “Only show documents open for comment”, select the Commodity Futures Trading Commission under Agency, find the notice in the list and press “Comment”. On the Federal Register page of the notice, a “Submit A Public Comment” button opens the same form.
• By post, to Christopher Kirkpatrick, Secretary of the Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Three Lafayette Centre, 1155 21st Street NW, Washington, DC 20581.
• By hand delivery or courier, addressed to “CFTC Comment Submission”, for the attention of the same person at the same address.

Whatever the method, name the notice (“Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets”) and RIN 3038-AF80. The notice prints no separate docket number. A plain-language summary is posted on Regulations.gov for readers who do not want to work through the full text.

Write in English, or attach an English translation. Every comment is published as received, without review, with any personal or business details inside it, so leave out what you would not post in public. Anyone wishing to send confidential material must contact CFTC staff first and read the rule on confidential treatment, 17 CFR 145.9. The agency may refuse to publish obscene language, threats, sales pitches or spam; a refused letter that also argues the merits stays in the record and is still considered.

Questions about the notice go to the Office of the General Counsel at [email protected] or +1 202-418-5000. Two members of the CFTC Innovation Task Force are also listed as contacts. From outside the United States, a letter can take a long time to arrive, so the online form is the safer route.

Is this a final rule? What comes next

No. An ANPRM imposes no new requirements. In the notice’s words, comments will inform the Commission’s consideration “of whether and how to proceed”, so a rule is not certain. If it goes ahead, the next step is a proposed rule with its own comment period, then a final rule. No timetable for either has been published. The White House budget office treated the notice as a significant regulatory action and reviewed it before publication. The CFTC press release of 5 October quotes Chairman Michael S. Selig: “The American people deserve clarity, certainty, and consumer protections in the crypto asset markets.”

The SEC runs a separate track. Its comment period on Regulation Crypto Assets, an offering regime for token issuers, closed on 20 October, with Nasdaq and community banks among the filers. Why two regulators are writing crypto rules at all, after a Senate vote on the market structure bill failed on 15 September, is explained in our piece on US crypto rules after the CLARITY Act.

Why a European reader may care

This is a US rule. In the European Union, leveraged retail crypto products fall under a different regime, built on MiCA, ESMA measures and national rules. The US text still matters to Europeans who use platforms regulated in the United States, such as Coinbase, Kraken or Gemini, because it would shape what those firms can offer from American entities. Direct relevance for African readers is low.

What we do not know yet

As of 29 October, several points are open. We do not know the closing hour, whether the CFTC will extend the period (nothing has been announced), whether it will hold a roundtable, how many comments it has received, or when a proposed rule might follow. We will update this page if the docket date or the timetable changes.