US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Michael Selig said the agency will press ahead with crypto regulation at the direction of President Donald Trump, "with or without legislation" from Congress.

Speaking at the Fordham Law Blockchain Regulatory Symposium on Monday, Selig announced proposals that would give crypto companies the option to operate under the CFTC's oversight rather than navigating a patchwork of rules imposed by individual US states.

According to written remarks from the event, the CFTC chair said the agency has issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking covering firms "offering retail customers the ability to trade crypto assets on a margined, leveraged, or financed basis," a regulation he referred to as "CTX." An advanced notice of proposed rulemaking is an early step in the federal rulemaking process that invites public input before a formal proposal is issued, meaning the CTX framework would still have to clear additional procedural stages before any rules take effect. Retail commodity trading on a margined or leveraged basis has long fallen within the CFTC's statutory jurisdiction.

Selig also said the agency plans to establish a new category of designated contract market (DCM) known as a "crypto asset market," or CAM, giving certain exchanges the option to register under either designation. DCMs are the CFTC's long-standing registration category for derivatives trading venues, so the new category would sit alongside it rather than replace it.

"These rules would codify a pathway for asset exchanges to operate under uniform national oversight by the CFTC pursuant to the same statutory authorities that the prior administration instead utilized to regulate by enforcement," said Selig.

The proposed rules would not extend to what the chair described as "ordinary spot crypto exchanges," which are "generally regulated under state money transmission laws." For companies offering spot trading in crypto assets such as Bitcoin (BTC), the CFTC would still hold the authority to enforce anti-fraud and anti-manipulation regulations.

Selig's proposed regulatory framework for crypto companies came a few weeks after US lawmakers failed to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, a bill that had been expected to give the CFTC greater authority in overseeing and enforcing crypto regulations. The Securities and Exchange Commission had already unveiled its own version of a proposed "tailored securities offering regime" for crypto assets in August, before the failed CLARITY vote, setting the expectation that both agencies would proceed with regulation without legislation from Congress codifying such rules.

Selig said Trump promised to deliver a crypto asset regulatory market structure with or without legislation, and that regulators will help him deliver it using existing statutory authorities.

"The opponents to CLARITY may have not bargained for the seeming readiness of the executive branch to act in the absence of any constraint from the legislative branch," said ProChain Capital's David Tawil in a post on Monday.

Both regulators still understaffed as they advance crypto proposals

Friday marked SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce's final day at the agency, wrapping up eight years of service just ahead of the 18-month extension for her second term. Her departure leaves just two commissioners leading the SEC, while Selig heads the CFTC as its sole commissioner and chair. The thin rosters carry procedural weight, since formal rulemakings at both agencies generally require votes by sitting commissioners.

A White House official told Cointelegraph last week that Trump intended to nominate commissioners to both agencies "in the near future." As of Monday, the administration had not announced any replacements for Peirce or the other six commissioner seats. With the CFTC's CTX notice at the front end of the rulemaking process and the SEC's tailored offering regime also at a proposal stage, the timing of those nominations is a development likely to be watched closely as both regulators push their crypto agendas forward without new legislation.