CFTC to host 'CEO Forum' on stablecoins and collateral in latest regulatory shift

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission says it will hold a "CEO Forum" to get insight on creating a pilot program geared towards stablecoins and collateral. 

The forum will include firms such as Circle, Coinbase and Ripple, according to a statement released on Friday by the agency.

“The CFTC is committed to responsible innovation," said CFTC Acting Chair Caroline Pham. "I look forward to engaging with market participants to deliver on the Trump Administration’s promise of ensuring that America leads the way on economic opportunity.” 

In September 2023, Pham  proposed a limited pilot program to regulate crypto. In that proposal, Pham suggested setting up a roundtable of stakeholders and said that the agency would propose and adopt rules around registration requirements and risk management. At the end, the agency would examine the data and then consider whether a permanent change would be made to its rules, she said in 2023.

The regulatory winds toward crypto have shifted over the past few weeks as the Trump Administration rolled into Washington. Both the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission have new leadership. Former CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam had his last day at the agency on Friday. At the SEC, former SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who was often skeptical of crypto, stepped down in January.

The SEC created a crypto task force in late January with plans to prioritize classifying some tokens as “non-securities.”