Senate Advances Bill to Give CFTC Crypto Oversight

The Senate Banking Committee voted 15-9 on May 14 to advance H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025, sending the bill toward a full Senate vote. The measure would make the Commodity Futures Trading Commission the primary federal regulator for many crypto spot-market activities. The CFTC reported payroll full-time equivalents fell from about 708 at the end of FY2024 to roughly 556 at the end of FY2025, an approximate 21.5% reduction.

The House passed the bill earlier. The text would require the CFTC to regulate digital commodity transactions, including digital-commodity exchanges, brokers and dealers. It would impose requirements for trade monitoring, recordkeeping, limits on customer-asset commingling and anti-fraud enforcement. Title IV in the House text would take effect 270 days after enactment unless otherwise specified, and the CFTC must issue conflict-of-interest rules within 360 days.

An Office of Inspector General report for the CFTC said bringing spot markets under the agency’s oversight will require new registrant categories, extensive rulemakings, cooperative arrangements with other regulators, qualified staff, new data systems and analytics, and management of increased budget resources.

Budget documents show the agency requested $410 million for FY2027, up from a $365 million FY2026 enacted base for salaries and expenses, and sought 650 full-time equivalents against a 636-FTE FY2026 baseline. On enforcement, the CFTC reported 140 enforcement FTEs in FY2025 actuals, with 105 enacted for FY2026 and 108 requested for FY2027.

The House-passed bill includes provisions to help the agency scale. Section 410 would authorize filing and annual fees tied to digital-commodity regulation and create expedited hiring authority for specialist positions. Those authorities depend on separate appropriations and would sunset after the fourth fiscal year following enactment.

The CFTC is organized as a five-commissioner body; the agency’s public roster listed Michael S. Selig as chairman in the current commissioners section as of May 19. House Agriculture leaders have urged a full, bipartisan commission to support rulemaking for an expanded mandate.

Sen. John Boozman said the agency will require resources and staff ready “on day one” to handle expanded authority. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, who voted to advance the bill, cautioned that a committee vote does not guarantee floor approval and highlighted outstanding financial-crime and ethics questions. Senate Banking minority staff raised concerns that the draft statute leaves illicit-finance and decentralized finance vulnerabilities to future fixes.

CFTC leadership has been preparing a digital-assets agenda while Congress negotiates. In April, Chairman Michael S. Selig told the House Agriculture Committee the agency was working on guidance for crypto, tokenized collateral, prediction markets, payment stablecoin capital treatment, enforcement and market surveillance. The total crypto market capitalization is about $2.56 trillion, with Bitcoin representing roughly $1.54 trillion. If enacted, the CLARITY Act would require the CFTC to write rules, register firms, build systems and supervise spot markets according to the statutory deadlines.