Written by: kkk
Under the strong push of the Trump administration, the United States is accelerating the integration of crypto assets into the mainstream financial system. On August 1, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) officially launched the "Crypto Sprint" regulatory plan, and subsequently proposed on August 5 to include spot crypto assets in CFTC-registered futures exchanges (DCM) for compliant trading. This move not only breaks the long-standing regulatory gray area of the spot market but also signals that the Web3 industry will usher in a clear and feasible compliance path.
CFTC Acting Chair Caroline Pham publicly stated: "Under the strong leadership of President Trump, the CFTC is fully promoting federal-level digital asset spot trading and coordinating with the SEC's 'Crypto Plan'." This statement sends a strong signal: U.S. regulation is shifting from "defensive suppression" to "institutional acceptance", providing unprecedented compliance opportunities for DeFi, stablecoins, on-chain derivatives, and other Web3 infrastructure.
Legalization of Spot Contracts: The Institutional Starting Point of the Crypto Market
For a long time, the U.S. regulatory system has lacked unified management of crypto spot trading. Transactions of crypto assets such as BTC and ETH are mostly concentrated on overseas platforms or unlicensed domestic exchanges, and the lack of regulation not only makes it difficult to protect investors' rights but also keeps institutional funds in a wait-and-see state.
The CFTC's "Crypto Sprint" is precisely aimed at solving this pain point. One of its core contents is to promote the legal listing of non-securities crypto assets' spot contracts on CFTC-registered futures exchanges (DCM). By approving these platforms to carry spot crypto trading, the CFTC provides a compliant alternative path for the market, replacing the long-relied-upon unlicensed or offshore trading platforms—which have gradually lost institutional trust in the FTX collapse (2021) and ongoing regulatory challenges with Binance. Therefore, for institutional investors, this policy means a more legal, transparent, and fair entry path for crypto assets, clearing obstacles for large-scale digital asset allocation.
According to the CFTC, Article 2(c)(2)(D) of the Commodity Trading Act clearly requires that any commodity transactions involving leverage, margin, or financing must be conducted on registered DCMs. This clause provides a solid legal basis for the legal listing of crypto spot contracts and brings much-needed regulatory certainty to the market. Under this framework, we may see "Coinbase-like" centralized trading platforms or on-chain derivative protocols like dYdX obtaining compliant operating licenses by registering as DCMs.
At the same time, this policy opens a compliant channel to crypto assets for traditional financial institutions. As a representative of DCM, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has long had a complete infrastructure for BTC and ETH futures markets. Once spot contracts are approved for listing, it will provide institutional investors with a one-stop crypto asset trading entry from futures to spot, accelerating the pace of traditional capital entering the market.
SEC and CFTC Join Hands: Regulatory Coordination Brings Certainty
In the past few years, one of the biggest regulatory challenges in the U.S. crypto market has been the overlapping responsibilities and blurred boundaries between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Project parties often have to deal with both the SEC's compliance pressure and the CFTC's commodity trading rules, falling into a "regulatory squeeze" or "duplicate enforcement" dilemma that consumes resources and increases uncertainty.
This "Crypto Sprint" for the first time clearly signals that the CFTC will establish a close cooperation mechanism with the SEC to jointly clarify the legal attributes of crypto assets (securities or commodities), custody standards, and trading compliance requirements, thereby providing market participants with a unified and predictable compliance path.
The "Sprint" not only symbolizes an accelerated regulatory pace but also marks a change in regulatory thinking—from passive defense to active collaboration. For Web3 project parties, this is no longer a simple "regulatory observation period" but an unprecedented institutional co-construction window. The CFTC has publicly solicited market feedback on the proposal for "listing spot crypto asset contracts on registered exchanges (DCM)", with a deadline of August 18. Participants who can submit opinions in time may not only be able to avoid future regulatory blind spots but may also influence the specific direction of the rules.
Meanwhile, the SEC's "Crypto Plan" is also highly coordinated with the "Crypto Sprint", attempting to create a unified federal regulatory framework that clearly defines the boundaries between securities and commodity crypto assets and promotes the construction of a "Super App" structure that can trade multiple asset types simultaneously. If this concept is implemented, future trading platforms will be able to legally provide "one-stop" crypto financial services such as stocks, Bitcoin, stablecoins, and staking services under a single license.
SEC Chair Paul Atkins and Commissioner Hester Peirce have also publicly expressed support, calling it a "historical turning point in promoting the on-chain financialization of the financial system" and stating that they will accelerate the development of specific rules in key areas such as stablecoin regulation, crypto asset custody, and compliant token issuance.
This dual-track regulatory approach is expected to end the chaotic situation in the United States where crypto assets have been ambiguously classified as either securities or commodities for years, and establish a clear, replicable compliance model for the global market.
More importantly, this means that Web3 projects can finally move beyond "violating regulations upon misstep" and truly integrate into the mainstream financial system through clear registration processes, compliant custody, and audit systems, aligning on-chain assets with real-world finance.
Summary
In the past week, the U.S. government has released unprecedented strong signals in the crypto asset field: the White House officially published the "Digital Asset Strategy Report", the SEC launched the "Crypto Plan", the CFTC launched the "Crypto Sprint" and publicly solicited opinions to promote compliant spot contract listing; at the same time, the White House rarely stated that banks are prohibited from discriminating against crypto enterprises—this is not just a "softening" but a complete policy shift.
Once, the SEC was the biggest regulatory shadow for crypto projects, but now we see it joining hands with the CFTC to establish a unified regulatory framework for Web3. Visibly, this is a historic structural change: from ambiguity to clarity, from suppression to support, from the gray area to federal legislation.
This time, what is sprinting is not only the regulatory agencies—but every Crypto Builder.
