CFTC Chair Michael Selig Talks Congress Clarity Act

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
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**SPEAKER_2** (0:07)
James Braid is expanding his horizons to the private sector. He's getting set to depart the White House in September, according to President Trump. James Braid, of course, is the White House Director of Legislative Affairs, and the president credited him in his post announcing his departure on true social. With many of the big accomplishments Congress has made during Trump's second term, including the one big beautiful bill, beating the Democrats into shutdown showdowns, the president says, and passing the Genius Act, as well as a number of other things. The Genius Act, of course, was the stable coin legislation that did get across the finish line. It was part one of what Congress wants to accomplish when it comes to crypto lawmaking.
Part two is the Clarity Act, which may have to find its way through the United States Senate without the help of James Braid unless someone is quickly put in his place to try to get it across the finish line. The Clarity Act, of course, is the market structure legislation, divvying up which digital assets should be regulated by which regulatory agency, the SEC or the CFTC. It gives a lot of jurisdiction to the CFTC, which today is holding its inaugural Innovation Advisory Committee meeting. It kicked off yesterday at the White House. The president actually greeted not just the CFTC chair and SEC chair, but heads of the major exchanges as well as the big crypto companies, got them all together and called on Congress to pass the Clarity Act. And we'll see whether or not that happens after recess. The question of course, if it doesn't, is where it leaves things. If there's no firm rules of the road written into the law when it comes to crypto, is it all just up to the regulators? That's where Bloomberg's Tyler Kendall began her conversation with the CFTC chair, Michael Selig, and they got into a number of other subjects as well. Let's listen to their conversation in full.

**Michael Selig** (1:55)
We're very optimistic that we're going to get clear rules of the road for crypto asset market structure on the books. And this vote is critical. We've got to get the Democrats to come along with us. They have really obstructed. We want their support. This should be bipartisan. The bill passed the House in a bipartisan fashion. We've got this bill in the Senate. It's very similar. We want to get it across the line. It needs to be a fair bill, a bill that isn't targeting the president or anybody else. It should be neutral and apply to everybody in the same way.
We're really excited to get this bill across the line. CFTC stands ready to implement upon the passage of the bill.

**Tyler Kendall** (2:29)
Just to quickly follow up on that, was there any discussion yesterday about any updated ethics provisions related to the bill?

**Michael Selig** (2:34)
Well, the ethics provision is under negotiation. We're looking forward to seeing a fair ethics provision that's not targeting the president or anybody else, as I said.

**Tyler Kendall** (2:44)
If clarity stalls or fails to pass, the CFTC has signaled that it's prepared to unilaterally dial up oversight. What would that look like? What sort of rulemaking are you prepared to take in that scenario?

**Michael Selig** (2:55)
The CFTC has a lot of authority, and we're not afraid to use that authority. The president has promised market structure for the crypto industry, and that's what we're going to do, whether we have a bill or not. But we're optimistic the bill is going to set the standard. We really want the United States to lead, and having legislation, clear law, on the books is the most surefire way to lock in crypto market structure, and so that's what we're focused on today.

**Tyler Kendall** (3:19)
But for my clarity, if clarity doesn't pass, you're still going to pursue regulation related to this?

**Michael Selig** (3:25)
Well, absolutely. It's really important that we have market structure. We can do that through rules. We can do that through laws. The CFTC has a lot of authority under its existing statutes, as do other agencies, and if we have to utilize that authority to create rules without the supporting legislation, we'll do it. But of course, legislation is the priority. That's what we want to see. America needs clear rules on the books.
We'll use rules if we have to, but we're going to focus on the law today.

**Tyler Kendall** (3:53)
Right, because in theory, or not in theory, in reality, the Clarity Act is there to codify this into law. So I'm just wondering how you're thinking about the future here to ensure that if there is a Democratic CFTC under a different administration, when it unwinds all the work that you'd be doing?