On March 20, 2026, the CFTC’s Market Participants Division (MPD) and Division of Clearing and Risk (DCR) published responses to 11 FAQs detailing how futures commission merchants (FCMs), derivatives clearing organizations (DCOs), and swap dealers may use crypto assets and blockchain technologies under existing regulations and recent staff guidance. The FAQs supplement prior guidance, including CFTC Staff Letters 25-39 on Tokenized Collateral Guidance and 26-05 (successor to 25-40) permitting FCMs to accept certain crypto assets as margin collateral. They reflect the CFTC’s commitment to Project Crypto and interagency harmonization with the SEC, while providing a roadmap for regulated entities seeking to engage with digital assets in derivatives markets.
FCMs relying on Staff Letter 26-05 may apply the post-haircut value of a customer’s non-security crypto assets to cover that customer’s debit or deficit balances in futures, foreign futures, and cleared swaps accounts, consistent with a margin value assignment. FCMs may deposit proprietary payment stablecoins as residual interest in customer segregated accounts, subject to a minimum 2% capital charge on market value, but may not use proprietary non-stablecoin crypto assets such as bitcoin or ether for this purpose. Crypto assets, including payment stablecoins, are not eligible margin collateral for uncleared swaps; tokenized versions of otherwise eligible collateral may qualify if they confer equivalent legal and economic rights. The permitted investment list under Regulation 1.25 remains unchanged.
Capital charges for FCM proprietary positions in bitcoin and ether are set at a minimum of 20% under Regulation 1.17(c)(5)(ii), and a 2% capital charge applies for payment stablecoins, aligning with SEC standards for broker-dealers. Derivatives clearing organizations (DCOs) may accept crypto assets, including payment stablecoins, as initial margin for cleared transactions if they meet Regulation 39.13(g)(10)’s minimal credit, market, and liquidity risk standards, with haircuts reviewed at least monthly. FCMs must file an electronic pre-reliance notice with MPD before relying on Staff Letter 26-05 and are subject to a tiered compliance regimen, including restricted asset types, incident reporting, and weekly position reports during an initial three-month period. During that initial period, permissible asset types are limited to payment stablecoins, bitcoin, and ether.
Beginning with the calendar month following the month of the pre-reliance filing, weekly reports of total crypto assets held in each futures, foreign futures, and cleared swaps customer accounts must be filed, broken out by asset type (including payment stablecoins). Post-initial period, the limits on eligible crypto margin collateral and incident reporting will no longer apply. The FAQs describe a measured step toward a formal regulatory framework for digital assets in derivatives markets, aiming to align capital haircuts with SEC standards and to support ongoing harmonization under Project Crypto. They note that Staff Letter 26-05 will no longer apply once formal rules on digital asset collateral are finalized, including any GENIUS Act implementing actions, and encourage firms to monitor developments and treat the FAQs as a living resource.
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