Enhancing Market Integrity and Advancing Tokenization with Nasdaq and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)

Nasdaq has launched a new three-part webinar series designed to explore the evolving landscape of crypto markets. The inaugural session brought together Nasdaq’s Tony Sio, VP, Head of Regulatory Strategy and Innovation, and U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Acting Chairman Caroline D. Pham for a candid discussion on how regulators and market operators are collaborating to build resilient, trustworthy digital assets markets.

Acting Chairman Pham set the tone by emphasizing a “back-to-basics” approach: streamlining rules to reduce unnecessary burdens while preserving core protections like price discovery, customer safeguards and fair competition. Rather than reinventing the wheel, the CFTC is extending proven futures market standards to tokenized assets, accelerating adoption without compromising trust.

Key Takeaways

The CFTC is applying proven futures market standards to tokenized assets to streamline regulation while preserving core protections.
Federal coordination is accelerating U.S. crypto competitiveness, with new opportunities in retail products and tokenized collateral.
Nasdaq and the CFTC are modernizing surveillance and compliance infrastructure to build resilient, trustworthy digital asset markets

1. Streamline Without Sacrificing Safeguards

Acting Chairman Pham emphasized pragmatic regulation: “There’s a renewed focus on getting back to basics… not engaging in regulation just for regulation’s sake.” This philosophy is guiding recalibrations to the Dodd-Frank swaps regime, aiming to reduce compliance burdens while preserving market integrity.

Compliance teams should audit existing frameworks to eliminate inefficiencies while maintaining essential protections. Market operators should align tokenized asset onboarding with futures standards to reduce fragmentation and accelerate trust.

2. Accelerate U.S. Crypto Competitiveness

The President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets marks a turning point in regulatory coordination. Acting Chairman Pham described it as a “sea change,” catalyzed by an executive order to promote digital financial technology.

Policy leads should leverage this roadmap to fast-track federal-level trading enablement. Firms should prepare for consultations on retail crypto products and tokenized collateral—these are near-term opportunities for engagement and influence.

3. Apply Existing Rules, Then Uplift

Rather than creating new categories, the CFTC is uplifting technology and asset-neutral rules to cover tokenized instruments. This approach ensures efficiency and trust.

Legal and compliance teams should map futures regime obligations (e.g., margining, surveillance and conduct) to tokenized instruments. Technology teams should build infrastructure that supports uplifted rulesets without reinventing compliance logic.

4. Operationalize Tokenized Collateral

Tokenized collateral is emerging as a high-impact opportunity. The CFTC is consulting on updates to margin haircuts and eligible collateral criteria, informed by the Global Markets Advisory Committee, on which Nasdaq serves. Clearinghouses and intermediaries should engage in the consultation. Operations teams should assess how tokenized assets can improve intraday mobility, cross-time-zone efficiency and settlement speed.

5. Enable Retail Crypto Products on Futures Exchanges

The CFTC is exploring listing leveraged, margined or financed retail commodity transactions on regulated futures exchanges. “Our futures regulatory framework is proven for customer protection, for efficiency, for price discovery,” Acting Chairman Pham emphasized.

Product teams should explore listing retail crypto transactions under existing CFTC rules. Risk teams should evaluate how futures frameworks can mitigate volatility and leverage risks in retail crypto offerings.

6. Coordinate Across Agencies

Acting Chairman Pham highlighted renewed collaboration with SEC leadership, including joint initiatives and harmonization across Dodd-Frank and cross-border issues.

Regulatory affairs teams should monitor SEC-CFTC joint initiatives to reduce duplicative oversight. Global firms should align cross-border compliance strategies with harmonized U.S. efforts.

7. Invest in Talent and Transformation

Technology is only as strong as the people and processes behind it. Acting Chairman Pham outlined a transformation agenda rooted in governance, culture, talent, operations and excellence.

HR and leadership should prioritize upskilling, governance and operational excellence. Change management teams should streamline internal processes to enable faster implementation of new technologies and rules.

8. Modernize Surveillance Systems

The CFTC is upgrading its surveillance platform with Nasdaq Market Surveillance, replacing a legacy 90s-era system. “We should have the state-of-the-art, best-in-class, market lead[ing] surveillance system,” Acting Chairman Pham said.

Surveillance and enforcement teams should prepare for enhanced capabilities, including faster reaction times and more robust alerting. Technology partners should align with Nasdaq’s modernization blueprint to support global supervisory collaboration.

Conclusion: Nasdaq’s Role as a Trusted Partner

Nasdaq’s mission is to support inclusive growth and integrity across the global financial ecosystem. Our partnership with the CFTC demonstrates what’s possible when market expertise, advanced technology and regulatory insight converge, enabling institutions and supervisors to build next-generation market infrastructure rooted in trust and resilience.

Changing Market Models for Digital Asset Trading

Join our next webinar on October 7, focused on infrastructure’s role in digital assets, hosted by Nasdaq’s Carl Slesser and Gerard Smith. The discussion will focus on “Changing Market Models for Digital Asset Trading: Institutionalizing Crypto with Modernized Infrastructure.”