The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is pressing ahead with crypto market structure rules without waiting for Congress. CFTC Mike Selig told CNBC that it is “go time” for the agency's rulemaking, eight days after the Senate blocked the Clarity Act. He argued that the CFTC's existing statutory authority gives it room to act on its own, with perpetual futures and derivatives at the center of the effort.

According to Decrypt's Morning Minute, a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner — whose analysis and opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt — the week following the failed vote has been the busiest stretch of US crypto policy in years, and none of it required a bill. Within 24 hours of the vote, the SEC's Atkins and Selig both said they would proceed.

Actions taken since then, as laid out in the newsletter:

• The SEC approved a five-year Innovation Exemption allowing tokenized US stocks to trade on public blockchains without exchange registration, effective immediately.
• The SEC held a roundtable on 24-hour trading, with NYSE, Nasdaq, and DTCC in the room.
• The CFTC issued a no-action letter letting wallet apps route users to regulated derivatives without registering as brokers.
• The SEC sent a crypto custody proposal to the Office of Management and Budget.
• The CFTC filed two prerules with the White House — Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets — under RIN 3038-AF80.

OMB review is a routine step in federal rulemaking, preceding the publication of proposed rules for public comment.

Selig's framing extends beyond crypto. He said the agency has to reevaluate all of its rules for a transition to 24/7 onchain markets driven by algorithms and agentic finance — in effect, a signal that the CFTC expects to regulate markets where software, rather than people, does the trading.

In practical terms, the CFTC can build a designated contract market category — the designation applied to US futures trading venues — that lets exchanges offer leveraged crypto trading under its oversight. It cannot, however, claim jurisdiction over the spot market — the core objective of the Clarity Act, which still requires legislation. That leaves perpetual futures — derivative contracts with no expiration date that track an underlying asset's price — as the immediate regulatory arena.

The newsletter characterized decentralized perps platforms Hyperliquid and Lighter as the clear beneficiaries of the development and their integration into the US. LIT, Lighter's token, hit an all-time high of $5.40, while HYPE, Hyperliquid's token, traded within 1-2% of its record. Warner wrote that the two appear set for a full green light — “just a matter of time” — with a slew of announcements expected as the CFTC pushes forward.

Markets

Crypto majors were broadly lower, down 2-3% alongside broader markets: BTC -3% at $83.4k; ETH -3% at $2,650; SOL -3% at $113; HYPE -5% at $91; and ZEC -10% at $1,485. Top alt movers included LTC (+7%), Stable (+5%), and MORPHO (+4%). Oil rose 2% to $93, while gold slipped 0.7% to $4,290. Stock futures fell as yields hit new multi-year highs, with the Dow -0.3% and the Nasdaq -0.9%.

Policy and Corporate Moves

• The Trump administration is weighing an initiative to push dollar-backed stablecoins overseas, potentially through joint ventures with private firms, to defend the dollar's reserve status and boost Treasury demand, as reported by Bloomberg.
• Per an Office of Government Ethics filing released Tuesday, Trump's accounts bought up to $115,000 of Strategy stock in July across two purchases, plus Coinbase shares, while selling MARA and CleanSpark.
• NYSE signed an MOU with Blockchain.com to distribute tokenized US stocks and ETFs through its planned digital ATS, reaching more than 44 million accounts across 70-plus jurisdictions, pending regulatory approval.
• MoonPay agreed to acquire North Capital for more than $60 million in stock, acquiring SEC broker-dealer, transfer agent, trading, and advisory registrations to build tokenized real-world asset infrastructure.
• Kalshi denied being under CFTC investigation after the Wall Street Journal reported the agency was examining its ether perp trading; a spokesperson said the flagged patterns are typical of liquidity incentive programs.
• About $15.9 billion in Bitcoin options settle Friday alongside ether's quarterly expiry, with positioning skewed toward calls and max pain at $75,000 — well below spot near $85,500.
• Coinbase launched fixed-rate Bitcoin-backed loans in the first enterprise-scale deployment of Morpho Midnight, letting users lock the rate and maturity on USDC borrowed against BTC, alongside a variable-rate book above $1.4 billion.

ETF Flows

Bitcoin ETFs saw $347 million in net inflows on Wednesday — more than $2 billion over three days — while ETH ETFs took in $105 million and SOL ETFs added $14 million.

Meme Coins

Meme leaders fell 5-10%: DOGE -7%, SHIB -8%, PEPE -12%, PENGU -11%, TRUMP -11%, SPX -14%, and BONK -14%. Robinhood chain leaders dropped 10-20%: Pons -12% to $420 million; AI -15% at $225 million; Cashcat -% at $146 million; with Prism +28%, Strategy +40%, and IMDSTR +70x leading top movers. On Solana, top movers were led by Mask +14x, SI +50%, GP +66%, and Grok +70%, while Ansem fell 12% to $150 million.

Tokens, Airdrops and Protocols

• Variational announced its tokenomics and token generation event (TGE) details, including a 32% “genesis” airdrop to users and a 100% treasury buy-and-burn model.
• Hyperliquid led onchain protocols with $2.12 million in daily revenue, followed by Pump at $1.83 million and Stonk at $958,000.
• Binance announced it will list HYPE for spot trading today at 2 pm ET.
• Stonk posted its sixth straight day of more than $1 million in revenue, according to its own metrics.

NFTs

NFT leaders were mostly flat after their recent leg up: Punks were even at 34 ETH, BAYC rose 1% to 6.89 ETH, and Pudgy was even at 3.51 ETH. Identity MD (+14%) and OCH Ringbearer (+20%) led top movers, while Credits gained 5% to 0.031.