Former CFTC Acting Chair Caroline Pham Says Agency Can Regulate Almost All Commodities
Former U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Acting Chair Caroline Pham stated that under the Commodity Exchange Act, the agency's jurisdiction covers almost all commodities, with the exception of onions and box office revenues.
In an interview at the Token2049 event in Singapore, she pointed out that the existing legal framework is sufficient to regulate crypto assets without waiting for Congress to pass new market structure legislation, as principle-based rules can be flexibly applied to new types of commodities.
Pham, who currently serves as Chief Legal Officer and Chief Operating Officer at MoonPay, supports the CFTC's recent proposal for rules on retail crypto leveraged trading, believing that bringing related trading onto regulated platforms is more beneficial for investor protection than individual state regulation.
She also mentioned that tokenized deposits are more suitable for wholesale markets than stablecoins, as achieving atomic settlement in a single day could require cash amounts up to $15 trillion, which current funds cannot support; she anticipates that the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq may launch true tokenized stocks within the next two years, resulting in significant trading volume.
Onion futures are excluded due to the 1958 Onion Futures Act, and box office revenues are not under jurisdiction due to historical legislative exceptions, making these the few statutory exclusions.
This perspective reinforces the path of advancing through existing agency rules in the U.S. crypto regulatory discussion, with capital and compliance resources potentially flowing more towards trading platforms under the CFTC framework rather than waiting for new legislation, increasing federal-level protections for retail traders while putting pressure on state licensing models.
The CFTC has recently issued a request for comments on rules for retail commodity trading, continuing previous crypto-related initiatives.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
During her tenure as CFTC Acting Chair, Caroline Pham promoted several crypto-related guidelines and pilots, and after leaving, joined MoonPay while continuing to advocate for the use of the existing Commodity Exchange Act to cover digital assets. Historically, the CFTC has exercised jurisdiction over leveraged retail commodity trading through provisions like Dodd-Frank, with the exceptions for onions and box office revenues stemming from early congressional legislation.
The capital and regulatory pathway is to incorporate crypto trading into a principle-based derivatives and commodity framework, advancing through agency rules rather than new laws, motivated by the desire to expedite retail protection and reduce legislative uncertainty, while also supporting the development of tokenized assets on traditional exchanges.
This is similar to the historical expansion of CFTC jurisdiction over energy, agricultural products, and foreign exchange derivatives, and aligns with other agencies' practices of covering emerging assets under existing authorizations; currently, the focus has shifted to rule-making after the CLARITY Act faced obstacles.
Essentially, this represents a regulatory change: the existing commodity law is interpreted as being able to cover new types of commodities like crypto, driven by the rarity of statutory exceptions and the flexibility of principle-based approaches, shifting jurisdiction from waiting for legislation to proactive agency rules.
ABAB News · Cognitive Law
All are commodities except onions and box office revenues
Existing laws are sufficient, no need to wait for new laws
Principle framework = flexible jurisdiction × rapid implementation