The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is maintaining its welcoming stance toward blockchain and cryptocurrency operations within the derivatives sector, informing supervised entities that tokenized instruments can be treated identically to their underlying assets and that distributed ledgers are adequate for keeping official records.
On Thursday, the regulatory body released updated guidance directing platforms under CFTC oversight that client capital may be allocated into tokenized variants of assets that already qualify as acceptable holdings. The regulator specified that these enterprises must guarantee that “the tokenized form of the asset grants the holder legal and economic rights that are the same or functionally equivalent to the rights received by holders of the asset in its traditional form” and that such assets are properly maintained.
Additionally, the CFTC provided several clarifications regarding the application of blockchains for official transaction logging, stating that agency personnel “would not object if a records entity utilized blockchain (or distributed ledger) technologies to create and maintain onchain records and satisfy its recordkeeping obligations.” The regulator noted that this policy extends to all CFTC regulations concerning record retention and the maintenance of compliance data.
Organizations might not even need to preserve offchain backups of these files if they operate on a private network. Conversely, if a public and permissionless blockchain is used, the advisory outlines that the regulated company “should establish systems and controls that enable it to retain and produce such records under any circumstances, including in the event of an emergency or other disruption to the network.”
The CFTC has accelerated the deployment of fresh policies, whether through formulating an updated, crypto-friendly interpretation of existing rules or drafting entirely new guidelines. This procedure has grown especially critical following the U.S. Senate’s decision last week not to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which would have established a comprehensive regulatory framework for the sector, including giving the CFTC authority over crypto spot markets—an area that currently represents a regulatory blind spot for the industry.
“I’m pleased to see staff update these frequently asked questions consistent with the agency’s ongoing efforts to provide regulatory clarity for the crypto industry,” stated CFTC Chairman Mike Selig.
Read More: CFTC sends crypto rules to White House to review as Congress stalls on Clarity Act
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/09/24/u-s-commodities-firms-can-invest-in-tokenized-assets-use-blockchain-records-cftc.
