The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has introduced a new pilot program designed to allow Bitcoin
CFTC acting chairman Caroline Pham stated in a press release on December 8 that the initiative includes updated guidance from the CFTC’s Market Participants Division, Market Oversight Division, and Clearing & Risk Division.
This guidance provides clarity on using tokenized assets, including US Treasuries and money-market funds, as collateral, and addresses enforceability, custody, segregation, valuation, and operational risks for futures and swaps trading.
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For the initial three-month phase, the pilot permits Futures Commission Merchants (FCMs) to accept those digital assets as customer margin. These firms must submit weekly reports detailing their digital asset holdings in customer accounts and any events affecting the use of crypto collateral.
The program also involves withdrawing a previous advisory, Staff Advisory 20‑34, that had limited how FCMs could accept virtual currencies as customer collateral. That restriction was deemed outdated following the passage of the GENIUS Act.
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Chief Legal Officer, Paul Grewal, noted the decision removes what he called “a concrete ceiling on innovation” and backed the regulatory clarity for tokenized collateral.
General Counsel Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos of StarkWare described the use of tokenized collateral in derivatives markets as “MASSIVE”.
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