CFTC and SEC staff in talks over digital assets: report

Staff at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are engaging with their counterparts at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regarding digital assets.

This is according to CFTC acting chair Caroline Pham, who revealed that  CFTC and SEC staff are in talks on further inter-agency collaboration around matters of digital assets and related topics.

FOX Business reporter Eleanor Terrett shared Pham’s comments on the ongoing discussions via a post on X.

While the CFTC and the SEC have worked together before, Pham believes the two regulatory watchdogs can take this to the next level. That will be for the good of the public and the market, she said.

“We have restarted conversations at the staff level between the CFTC and SEC. We would like to work together. We have worked together well in the past and I look forward to getting back to regular order,” she stated.

The staff-level conversation is happening at Milken Institute’s Future of Fintech Symposium, in Washington D.C.

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, who is leading the agency’s recently formed crypto task force, also commented on the discussions.

Hester’s pro-crypto stance saw her emerge as one of the voices that consistently disagreed with the ‘regulation by enforcement approach’ that impacted crypto innovation and growth in the U.S. under former SEC chair Gary Gensler.

In her comments regarding the CFTC and SEC staff talks, she notes the important role public participation plays in rule making.

Also key is President Donald Trump’s crypto working group hitting the ground running in terms of efforts to bring clarity to the regulatory landscape. There have been suggestions of a joint CFTC-SEC oversight of crypto before.

“It is important to know what is an SEC remit and what is not… The crypto working group has started to identify what falls within the SEC’s jurisdiction and what does not, which is crucial. It is essential to involve the public in rulemaking discussions, and those affected by the rules should have the right to participate in rulemaking,” Peirce added.

Trump appointed Pham as CFTC acting chair and Commissioner Mark Uyeda as SEC acting chair in January. Uyeda named Hester Peirce the chair of the crypto task force shortly after. 

The two agency’s staff-level engagement comes just days after Trump’s remarks on a crypto strategic reserve for the U.S. White House is also set to host its first crypto summit on Friday, March 7, 2025.