Former CFTC Acting Chair Says Agency Can Regulate Almost Everything Except Onions

Former CFTC Acting Chair Caroline Pham said the Commodity Exchange Act already gives the agency power over nearly every asset class, noting that pretty much everything is a commodity except onions and movie box office receipts,Block inc report.

Speaking at Token2049 Singapore, Pham, now chief legal officer at MoonPay, said the framework is principles based and flexible enough to cover new markets like AI compute derivatives. Her comments follow the failure of the Clarity Act, which pushed industry focus toward agency rulemaking.

Retail Crypto Protection Through Regulated Exchanges

Pham praised the CFTC’s recent proposals on Regulation CAM and Regulation CTX as a continuation of her Crypto Sprint initiative from 2025, which enabled the first spot crypto trading on CFTC registered exchanges. She called it exactly the protection retail traders in the United States need.

Tokenized Deposits Beat Stablecoins for Wholesale Markets

Pham argued atomic settlement of a single trading day would require $15 trillion in cash that does not exist, making tokenized deposits necessary for wholesale markets while stablecoins suit cases where parties lack trust.

Real Tokenized Stocks Within Two Years

She expects the NYSE and Nasdaq to list real tokenized shares with significant volume within two years, pointing to Nasdaq’s Payward partnership and ICE’s OKX deal as signs of convergence between traditional finance and crypto.