The Commodity Futures Trading Commission convened the first meeting of its Innovation Advisory Committee on August 20, a three-hour session opened under the title "Crypto's Regulatory Evolution: From Uncertainty to Clarity." The committee, launched in January to replace the agency's old Technology Advisory Committee, is stacked with industry weight: its 43 members include the chief executives of Coinbase, Ripple, Kraken, Gemini, OKX and Solana Labs, alongside the heads of CME Group, Nasdaq and Intercontinental Exchange.
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev addressed the opening session, saying the group looks "forward to working together to expand ownership, build the next generation of capital markets, and ensure America leads the way." The committee's formal mandate is to advise the CFTC on how technological change, blockchain chief among it, should shape regulatory frameworks across derivatives and commodity markets — a mandate that, per the Federal Register notice establishing the committee, extends beyond crypto into artificial intelligence and prediction markets as well.
Selig: Rules Are Coming Either Way
The meeting's most consequential line came from CFTC Chairman Michael Selig, who told attendees that crypto will get a market structure framework “regardless of whether the bill passes,” referring to the CLARITY Act — the stalled legislation meant to formally divide oversight of digital assets between the CFTC and SEC. Selig added that the CLARITY Act remains the agency's preferred path, but the comment makes explicit what regulators have signaled for months: both agencies are pressing ahead with their own rulemaking rather than waiting on a Congress that has yet to move the bill out of the Senate.
Related: Trump Pushes Clarity Act, Light-Touch AI Rules at White House Crypto Summit
Rulemaking Without Legislation
That posture puts the CFTC in similar company to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which has separately said it expects to finalize GENIUS Act stablecoin rules by November even as broader crypto market-structure legislation sits stalled. The pattern suggests federal regulators increasingly view agency rulemaking as the more reliable lever than statute, particularly with the CLARITY Act's Senate prospects still uncertain heading into its September 15 cloture vote.
For exchanges and custodians, that split path creates both opportunity and risk: agency guidance can move faster than legislation, but it's also more easily unwound by a future administration, whereas a signed law would lock in the market structure the industry has been lobbying for since 2023. The committee's next meeting has not yet been scheduled.
