Crypto glossary
CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission)
The CFTC is the US agency that regulates futures, options and swaps markets, and it treats bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies as commodities.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversees US derivatives markets: futures, options and swaps on everything from wheat and oil to interest rates. It registers exchanges and brokers that offer these products, monitors trading for manipulation and brings enforcement actions against fraud.
The CFTC has classified bitcoin as a commodity since 2015, and regulated venues such as CME have listed bitcoin futures since December 2017. The agency has sued offshore platforms that offered leveraged crypto derivatives to US customers without registration, including BitMEX and Binance, and it also oversees event contracts traded on regulated prediction markets.
Its powers over spot crypto trading are limited to fraud and manipulation, which leaves gaps that Congress has debated filling through market-structure legislation. The split of authority between the CFTC and the SEC remains one of the main sources of legal uncertainty for US crypto firms.
Example
A US trader who buys bitcoin futures on CME is using a market supervised by the CFTC, while the same leveraged bet on an unregistered offshore exchange falls outside its protections.
Related terms
Latest articles on CFTC
- Crypto Firms File Amicus Brief Defending CFTC Single-Stock Perp Authority
- CFTC Adopts Crypto Trading Model, Launching Regulated Stock Perpetual Futures
- CFTC Chair Selig Urges Framework Adaptation For Autonomous AI Trading Agents
- Who Regulates Crypto? Inside the SEC–CFTC Divide
- CFTC Takes Utah to Court as Prediction Market Regulatory Showdown Escalates
