CFTC provides clarity on US access to foreign crypto exchanges after being ‘driven out’

The Block

Aug 29, 2025 02:04:51

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The Commodity Futures Trading Commission clarified on Thursday that non-U.S. exchanges have a path that allows Americans to trade on their platforms, advancing its push toward being friendlier to the crypto industry under the Trump administration.

The agency clarified its stance in a staff advisory focused on the foreign board of trade (FBOT), which Acting Chair Caroline Pham said would help make its regulations clearer.

"Today’s FBOT advisory provides the regulatory clarity needed to legally onshore trading activity that was driven out of the United States due to the unprecedented regulation by enforcement approach of the past several years," Pham said in a statement. “By reaffirming the CFTC’s longstanding approach to provide U.S. traders with choice and access to the deepest and most liquid global markets, with a wide range of products and asset classes, American companies that were forced to set up shop in foreign jurisdictions to facilitate crypto asset trading now have a path back to U.S. markets."

The advisory addresses FBOT, which it describes as “any board of trade, exchange, or market located outside the United States, its territories or possessions." The agency stated that there had been recent confusion regarding whether non-U.S. exchanges should register as an FBOT or a designated contract market (DCM), due to the agency's past approach to enforcement actions.

A FBOT registered with the CFTC does not need to be a DCM, according to the advisory. A designated contract market is a regulated exchange where standardized derivatives contracts like futures, options, an binary contracts are traded.

Under the Biden administration, the CFTC brought enforcement actions against multiple crypto platforms for not registering as a DCM, among other allegations. The agency charged Binance and its founder, for example, in 2023 for not registering as a DCM and said it willfully evaded the law.

The CFTC, along with other financial regulators, has taken a friendlier approach to crypto since President Donald Trump took office in January. The agency announced a "crypto sprint" earlier this month to focus on crypto spot trading and address recommendations made in the President's Working Group report.

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