The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has created an Innovation Task Force to help shape regulatory approaches for cryptocurrencies, blockchain, artificial intelligence and prediction markets.
CFTC Chair Michael Selig said the task force will work alongside the agency’s Innovation Advisory Committee to craft a framework focused on those three areas. The initiative will be led by Michael Passalacqua, who joined the CFTC in January as a senior adviser after handling crypto and blockchain matters at the international law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
Selig described the group as a forum where developers and innovators can engage directly with agency staff. He emphasized that the effort extends beyond crypto to include prediction markets and AI, which the commission sees as major areas of interest.
The announcement follows a similar move by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which established its own crypto-focused task force over a year ago. That SEC unit was launched shortly after President Donald Trump took office and Mark Uyeda became acting chair following Gary Gensler’s departure. The SEC task force, led by Commissioner Hester Peirce, included Selig in his prior role as chief counsel before his nomination to lead the CFTC.
Regulators are issuing guidance as comprehensive market-structure legislation remains stalled in Congress. Last week the SEC released an interpretive notice proposing that most crypto assets would not be treated as securities under federal law—a step SEC Chair Paul Atkins called a “bridge” to clarify oversight while Congress has not passed a full digital asset framework.
A related market-structure bill, known as the CLARITY Act after it passed the House in July 2025, is stuck in the Senate amid disagreement over provisions covering stablecoin yields, ethics, and tokenized equities. Supporters have suggested some progress toward compromise, but it is not clear when the bill might reach the Senate floor.
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