The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a joint statement setting out a renewed coordination agenda as securities and derivatives markets increasingly converge, and announced a joint roundtable on regulatory harmonization scheduled for 29 September 2025. The chairs framed the roundtable as a next step following a joint staff statement on facilitating trading of certain spot crypto asset products. The statement identifies potential areas for SEC-CFTC alignment, including harmonizing product and venue definitions, streamlining reporting and data standards, and aligning capital and margin frameworks, alongside the possible use of each agency’s existing exemptive authority to create coordinated “innovation exemptions.” Priority topics for discussion include expanded trading hours for 24/7 markets, regulatory clarity for event contracts on prediction markets (including those based on securities), concurrent steps to “onshore” perpetual contracts that meet investor and customer-protection standards, and a coordinated approach to portfolio margining to recognize offsetting positions across product classes. It also raises potential action to enable clearinghouses to offer portfolio-based margin across SEC- and CFTC-regulated product lines without duplicative registration or conflicting compliance burdens, and signals willingness to consider safe harbors or exemptions for peer-to-peer trading via decentralized finance protocols, including for spot and leveraged or margined crypto transactions and related derivatives such as perpetual contracts. The agencies positioned the roundtable as an initial milestone, with further coordination expected under existing statutory authorities and, where used, exemptions intended to operate alongside longer-term rulemaking.

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