Securities firms participating in cryptocurrencies, tokenization, decentralized finance (DeFi) systems, and other digital asset realms will have to rely less on external regulatory guardrails and more on their own proactive efforts as the Trump administration charts a new course for the regulation of digital asset environments. The marching orders for this rapid reversal of Biden-era… Read More >>
The CFTC Takes a U-Turn on Digital Assets
Earlier this month, amid a flurry of executive orders, policy shifts, and layoffs of federal workers, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charted a new course for its policies toward digital asset regulation. It is a dramatic change that puts the regulator in a new alignment with the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Justice,… Read More >>
UST ETFs Can Be Collateral for Uncleared Swaps
A division of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission staff has issued a clarification that will allow shares of certain U.S. Treasury exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to be treated as redeemable securities in a pooled investment fund and thus eligible as margin collateral for certain uncleared swap transactions. The clarification allows these instruments to qualify as eligible… Read More >>
A New CFTC May Emerge from the Disruption
The Trump White House has put forward Brian Quintenz as the next chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and, if confirmed, he will be working with a commodities and derivative markets regulator that has been experiencing several disruptions since the start of the year. Quintenz, who served as a CFTC commissioner from August… Read More >>
SEC & CFTC Prioritize Crypto Regs Creation
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) are following up on their recent announcements to move quickly on cryptocurrency regulation just as industry providers are getting on the crypto train. The SEC is offering more details about the mission of its special Crypto Task Force and the CFTC will be… Read More >>
SEC & CFTC Extend Deadline for Form PF Amendments
Sometimes it pays to fight City Hall especially when there’s a new City Hall. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) – now both under the control of the Trump administration — last week extended a controversial compliance date for the amendments to Form PF from March 12, 2025,… Read More >>
Fenergo Targets Energy & Commodities Firms
Fenergo has launched a trader request platform for the energy and commodities sector that combines artificial intelligence (A.I.), know your customer (KYC), and onboarding features in an effort to streamline compliance and onboarding processes, officials say. The Trader Request Portal “was purpose-built to address one of the industry’s most persistent challenges of improving collaboration and… Read More >>
JSCC Adopts ISDA’s DRR for Regulatory Reporting
The Japan Securities Clearing Corp. (JSCC) has become the first central clearing counterparty in Japan to integrate the International Swaps and Derivatives Association’s (ISDA) Digital Regulatory Reporting (DRR) framework and the Common Domain Model (CDM) from ISDA but now managed by the Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS) into a production environment. As of June 2025,… Read More >>
A Roundup of Predictions for 2025
I’m a little late to the predictions party but please indulge me. This is a completely unscientific, random, and unusual set of predictions for this year and maybe a little beyond. I have scanned the usual suspects and unorthodox places and presented a variety of points of view while adding a few of my own…. Read More >>
Will the CFTC’s Acting Chairman Overhaul the Regulator?
Outspoken Republican Commissioner Caroline D. Pham is the acting chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and in that role could shake up the commodities regulator, which she thinks has strayed far from its mission. Pham takes over as Rostin Behnam, the now-former CFTC chairman, steps down following his January 7 announcement that he… Read More >>
