--- title: "What Is the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission)?" term: "CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission)" type: glossary_term canonical: https://www.moonwire.org/insights/glossary/cftc.html --- # What Is the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission)? > The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is the US federal agency that regulates derivatives markets - futures, options and swaps. In crypto it supervises the contract and the venue listing it, which is why Bitcoin futures sit with the CFTC rather than the SEC. The **Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)** is the US federal agency that regulates derivatives markets — futures, options and swaps. Congress created it as an independent agency in 1974, moving futures oversight out of the Department of Agriculture as contracts spread from farm goods into financial products. Its governing statute is the Commodity Exchange Act. ## What it actually supervises The CFTC's remit is the *contract*, not the underlying asset. It registers and oversees the venues and intermediaries that carry those contracts — designated contract markets, clearing organisations, brokers — and polices fraud and manipulation in the markets they run. In the United States, Bitcoin and Ether have been treated as commodities for these purposes, which is why US-regulated Bitcoin futures sit with the CFTC while the question of whether a token is a security sits with the SEC. A worked example: a [perpetual futures](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/glossary/perpetual-futures.md) contract on an offshore venue is plainly a derivative, but the offshore venue is not a registered US one. US-facing versions therefore tend to appear as registered-venue or permissioned products rather than as the offshore original — which is why so much crypto product news is really venue-registration news. ## The boundary problem Spot markets are the gap. The CFTC's anti-fraud and anti-manipulation authority reaches spot commodity markets after the fact, but it operates no general licensing regime for spot crypto exchanges, and the SEC's authority reaches only securities. Legislation such as the proposed CLARITY Act was drafted to close that seam by assigning market-structure oversight between the two agencies. ## How MoonWire uses the term We name the CFTC where a filing, registration or action in our coverage actually turns on derivatives jurisdiction — for instance the prediction-market venues' jurisdiction fight, in [this regulator tracker](/insights/regulator-tracker-2026-08-18.html), and the day the Senate deferred the market-structure bill, in [this breaking brief](/insights/treasury-iran-exchange-sanctions-senate-clarity-delay.html). The [crypto regulation](/insights/topics/crypto-regulation.html) hub collects the rest. ## What it is not The CFTC does not approve tokens, endorse venues or vouch for returns. "CFTC-regulated" describes a contract and the venue that lists it, not the prospects of the asset underneath. ## Further reading - [Wikipedia: Commodity Futures Trading Commission](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_Futures_Trading_Commission) ## Where this appears in MoonWire analysis - [The Senate Blocked the Clarity Act 49-50. The Venues Kept Building Anyway.](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/market-pulse-2026-09-17.md) — Sep 17, 2026 - [Prediction Markets Listed Perps. A Perp Venue Listed Football.](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/week-in-review-2026-09-08.md) — Sep 8, 2026 - [Crypto Venues Listed Stock Products All Week. The SEC Scheduled a Roundtable.](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/week-in-review-2026-09-01.md) — Sep 1, 2026 - [The News Ran Exploits and CPI. Tradermayne's Feed Ran Leverage Tiers.](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/source-spotlight-tradermayne-2026-08-18.md) — Aug 18, 2026 - [Prediction Markets Stopped Defending Themselves and Started Suing States](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/regulator-tracker-2026-08-18.md) — Aug 18, 2026 - [Gambling Took Crypto's Liquidity, One Analyst Says. Another Sees It Turning](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/market-pulse-2026-08-13.md) — Aug 13, 2026 - [Treasury Sanctioned Two Exchanges the Day the Senate Punted the Crypto Bill](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/treasury-iran-exchange-sanctions-senate-clarity-delay.md) — Aug 8, 2026 - [Sector Rotation - Week of July 21: Crypto's Venue Layer Emptied and Refilled in the Same Seven Days](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/sector-rotation-2026-07-27.md) — Jul 28, 2026 - [Market Pulse - July 24: The Bill Lost Twenty Points. The Rulebook Moved Anyway.](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/market-pulse-2026-07-24.md) — Jul 24, 2026 - [Market Pulse - July 17: The Coins Lost the Room. The Contracts on Them Didn't.](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/market-pulse-2026-07-17.md) — Jul 18, 2026 - [State of the Market - June 2026: Crypto Didn't Lose to Tight Money. It Lost an Auction for Easy Money.](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/state-of-market-2026-06.md) — Jul 16, 2026 - [Breaking Brief - July 15: Japan Filed Crypto Under Its Securities Law - and Three Jurisdictions Showed That Classification Is Now the Whole Fight](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/japan-classifies-crypto-financial-product.md) — Jul 16, 2026 --- *MoonWire surfaces and summarizes public crypto news.* **General information only — not financial advice.** MoonWire Ltd. is not licensed by ASIC and holds no AFSL. This content does not consider your objectives, financial situation, or needs, and is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any asset. *This analysis is generated by artificial intelligence and may be inaccurate, incomplete, or fabricated. Independently verify before acting.* © 2026 MoonWire Ltd. · [Terms](https://www.moonwire.org/legal/TOS) · [Risk Disclosure](https://www.moonwire.org/legal/RISK_DISCLOSURE) · [Privacy Policy](https://www.moonwire.org/legal/PRIVACY_POLICY)