The head of the U.S. derivatives regulator says every asset class — not just crypto — could end up settling on blockchain, and he is telling markets to get ready for what he calls “mass tokenization.”
By Ana Gonzalez | September 23, 2026
CFTC Chair Michael Selig used the U.S. Treasury Market Conference on Sept. 22 to lay out a vision that goes well beyond Bitcoin and Ether: real-world assets moving between clearinghouses, intermediaries and end users in real time, with blockchain infrastructure supporting near-instant settlement around the clock. “Just as the transition from hand signals to electronic trading advanced our financial system, I believe tokenization can do the same for all asset classes,” Selig said, according to his published remarks.
The Hook: The CFTC Is Planning For A World It Does Not Fully Regulate Yet
For regular investors, the striking part is the framing. Selig is not talking about whether tokenization will happen — he is talking about adapting old rulebooks so that markets function when it does. He compared the coming shift to the move from trading-pit hand signals to electronic markets, a transition that compressed settlement times and rewired the entire financial industry. Tokenized collateral, he argued, could make liquidity more dynamic: imagine a treasury bond that can be posted as margin at a clearinghouse, released, and redeployed elsewhere in seconds rather than sitting frozen overnight.
That “high-quality tokenized collateral” idea already has policy behind it. Earlier in 2026, the CFTC expanded the types of eligible tokenized collateral to include certain payment stablecoins issued by national trust banks, and published guidance on the use of crypto assets and blockchain technology by regulated entities. Selig said the commission will keep looking for ways to support stablecoin use by market participants, exchanges and clearinghouses.
The Evidence: Rulebooks Moving While Congress Stalls
The speech lands at a specific political moment. On Sept. 15, the Senate failed to invoke cloture on the CLARITY Act, 49 to 50, leaving the market-structure bill 11 votes short of the 60 needed. Two days later, the CFTC submitted its own crypto market framework — titled “Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets” — to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. The filing is at the prerule stage, releases no regulatory text, and creates no new requirements, but it signals the agency intends to act under its existing authority.
Concrete steps have already followed:
- Sept. 17 no-action position — the CFTC’s Market Participants Division said it will not recommend enforcement against qualifying passive software providers that connect users with registered derivatives exchanges, brokers and futures commission merchants, provided 10 specified conditions are met.
- 24/7 trading guidance — the agency has sought public feedback on expanding trading hours and issued staff guidance on round-the-clock trading, clearing and settlement.
- Leveraged crypto rules on the drawing board — since August, Selig has said the CFTC is prepared to pursue digital asset rules regardless of the CLARITY Act, including rules for margined crypto transactions through regulated markets.
The Core Conflict: Not Everything Should Trade At 3 A.M.
Selig was careful to draw lines. Crypto and precious metals may suit 24/7 markets right now, he said, while agricultural products, energy contracts and some financial products may not be ready for that structure. If markets do move toward continuous operation, surveillance systems, margin frameworks and operational safeguards would all need to function without pause — a genuinely hard problem when much of the financial system’s risk plumbing assumes business hours.
The SEC is moving in parallel. On Sept. 17 it granted Tokenized Securities Venues a five-year conditional exemption from the exchange definition, allowing eligible platforms to trade tokenized versions of U.S.-listed stocks using permissioned automated market makers — provided tokens carry the same rights as real shares, smart contracts are public and auditable, and trading halts when the underlying stock halts. SEC Chair Paul Atkins framed it as an interim measure. With both agencies building onchain-market rules under current law, tokenization is becoming a two-regulator project, not a crypto-side experiment.
Market Implications: Collateral Is The Killer App Nobody Announced
For investors, the most underappreciated phrase in Selig’s remarks is “tokenized collateral.” Tokenized stocks grab headlines, but collateral mobility is where tokenization changes the economics of finance: assets that can move in real time free up capital that today sits parked as margin. That is the same efficiency argument — fewer idle assets, cheaper credit, faster settlement — that has pushed banks, asset managers and now derivatives regulators toward blockchain infrastructure.
The stakes for crypto assets themselves are also direct. If payment stablecoins become standard collateral in CFTC-regulated markets, demand for the largest, best-capitalized issuers grows structurally — a tailwind that compounds with every framework document like this one. Meanwhile, the CLARITY Act talks continue among seven Democratic senators who left the door open after the failed vote, meaning statutory clarity could still land on top of the regulatory track already in motion.
The Verdict: Regulators Are No Longer Asking Permission
Selig’s message boils down to this: whether or not Congress passes anything this year, U.S. derivatives markets are being prepared for tokenized assets, real-time collateral and eventually round-the-clock trading. For an industry that spent years begging for clarity, the remarkable shift is that regulators are now racing to keep up with the technology rather than litigating it out of existence. The transition from hand signals to screens took decades and created winners and losers; Selig clearly intends for the tokenization wave to be supervised from the start.
Market snapshot (Sept. 23, 12:00 UTC): BTC 85,636 USD, ETH 2,727 USD, SOL 117 USD.
The cryptocurrency market remains highly volatile. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
mass tokenization from the agency that already claims most crypto volume is a commodity. selig is basically describing his own chessboard and daring congress to move first
the hand signals to electronic trading line is doing a lot of work here. selig is framing tokenization as inevitable infrastructure and daring anyone to disagree
a treasury bond posted as margin, released and redeployed in seconds instead of frozen overnight. that alone rewrites how treasury desks manage collateral
hand signals to screens took decades though. show me the tokenized bond trading after hours before i get excited
after hours is closer than you think, dtcc has been piloting same day onchain treasury transfers for a while now. the bond part is already moving
24/7 settlement of treasuries would genuinely change repo markets overnight. congress dragging feet wont stop clearinghouses from piloting this
piloting yes, but the with-or-without-congress attitude only works until courts decide some tokenized thing is a security. then comes the long pause
selig knows the court risk, thats the whole reason he frames it as infrastructure. cftc can regulate the rail without touching whether the asset is a security
clarity act fails 49 to 50 and two days later the cftc files its own framework with oira. agencies stopped waiting for congress
^ been the pattern all year. the 60 vote senate bar is a wall, regulation by guidance is the only lane that moves