Former Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Acting Chair Caroline Pham says existing federal law already gives the regulator broad authority over cryptocurrency markets, and she argues the agency can expand its oversight of digital assets without waiting for Congress to pass new legislation.

JUST IN: Former #USA CFTC Acting Chair Caroline Pham says the agency’s jurisdiction covers ‘almost everything’ and can regulate most #Crypto activity without new legislation.

— Crypto News (@News_crypto) October 12, 2026

Pham, who now serves as chief legal and administrative officer at crypto payments company MoonPay, made the remarks during the Token2049 conference in Singapore. Speaking from the vantage point of a former regulator turned crypto industry executive, she noted that the Commodity Exchange Act, the statute that underpins the CFTC’s mandate, covers almost every commodity apart from onions and movie box office receipts. That breadth, she argued, leaves little room for crypto activity to fall outside the agency’s jurisdiction — an interpretation that, if it prevails, would shift crypto oversight onto the regulator’s own rulemaking authority.

CFTC Authority Extends Beyond Crypto

According to Pham, the agency’s principles-based rules can accommodate products that did not exist when lawmakers originally drafted the legislation. She cited potential derivatives linked to artificial intelligence computing capacity as one example of how the existing framework could reach emerging markets.

Her comments follow a new set of CFTC crypto trading proposals announced on October 5. Chairman Michael Selig opened rulemaking on Regulation CTX and Regulation CAM after the Clarity Act failed to advance in Congress in September. The two developments show the channels through which US crypto rules can currently take shape: legislation on Capitol Hill and rulemaking at the agency itself.

Retail Trading Rules Take Shape

The proposals address crypto transactions involving borrowed funds, margin, and financing. If adopted, they would offer a federal regulatory route for certain trading platforms instead of relying solely on separate state licensing systems. The texts remain proposals for now, so the outcome of the rulemaking process will determine what federal oversight of leveraged crypto trading looks like in practice.

Pham linked the measures to the Crypto Sprint initiative she launched at the agency in 2025. In her view, placing leveraged retail transactions on regulated exchanges would provide stronger investor safeguards than the current patchwork of rules.

Banks Need Tokenized Deposits

Pham also questioned whether stablecoins can serve every wholesale financial transaction. Her remarks came shortly after Rain’s application for federal banking status on October 7, which underscored growing interest in regulated stablecoin infrastructure.

She estimated that settling an entire trading day instantly would require roughly $15 trillion in cash. According to Pham, tokenized bank deposits are better suited to transactions in which banks offset obligations against one another before transferring outstanding balances, while stablecoins are a better fit for payments between parties that lack mutual trust. In her framing, the two instruments serve different parts of the financial system rather than acting as direct substitutes.

Tokenized Shares Could Reach Major Exchanges

Pham said she expects Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange to support tokenized shares within two years. She drew a clear distinction between company-approved tokenized stocks that carry shareholder rights and synthetic products issued without authorization.

An October 6 report described plans for a tokenized stock market involving crypto exchange OKX and Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the NYSE. Their proposed venue would support blockchain-based trading in shares of major US companies. Progress on that venue, and on her two-year timeline for Nasdaq and the NYSE, will be reference points for how tokenized equities develop.

Pham also predicted renewed interest in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as customer loyalty tools. She compared their potential uses with airline miles and retail rewards programs rather than with company shares.