The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is ushering in a new form of federally regulated crypto trading, having encouraged its regulated platforms to open up leveraged spot digital assets products, which is set to begin next week with Bitnomial.
The Bitnomial exchange is regulated by the U.S. derivatives watchdog as a designated contract market (DCM), meaning this new activity will be launching in a fully regulated space, following strong encouragement from the federal agency — including direct meetings with Acting Chairman Caroline Pham to help the process along when the federal government was shut down for a prolonged period.
“Recent events on offshore exchanges have shown us how essential it is for Americans to have more choice and access to safe, regulated U.S. markets,” Pham said in a statement. “Now, for the first time ever, spot crypto can trade on CFTC-registered exchanges that have been the gold standard for nearly a hundred years, with the customer protections and market integrity that Americans deserve.”
The move, which Pham called a “historic milestone,” tracks recommendations from the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, which had issued a report this year setting out a crypto agenda for U.S. regulators. Pham said the CFTC is “finally using our decades-long existing authority” to initiate this trading.
Chicago-based Bitnomial set the launch for next week. It’s one of several regulated DCMs at the CFTC, also including Coinbase, Kalshi and Polymarket.
“Leveraged spot crypto trading is now available under the same regulatory framework as U.S. perpetuals, futures, and options,” said Luke Hoersten, Founder and CEO of Bitnomial.
The company said that such trading on a DCM “means all orders, retail and institutional, receive equal and fair treatment with no preferential routing, no information advantage, and equal access to liquidity.”
This was one of the first agenda items of the CFTC’s so-called “crypto sprint” to implement the administration’s pro-crypto policy goals. It was among Pham’s priorities as she waited for her permanent replacement as chairman, which could be coming soon as the Senate advances the confirmation process for Trump nominee Mike Selig.
Pham has been planning to leave the agency when the new chairman comes in, leaving that person alone in what’s meant to be a five-member commission. The White House hasn’t yet provided any other nominees to fill out the leadership, so the next chairman will take over the crypto policy surge solo.
Among the other initiatives include a push for tokenized collateral that will include stablecoins, which is expected to happen early next year, and a broad rulemaking that inserts blockchain technology into a range of CFTC regulations.
One of the gaping holes in U.S. federal regulation of crypto is that bitcoin and other major digital assets are considered commodities, but the CFTC doesn’t have broad authority over spot market manipulation. So, the bulk of crypto trading is outside the authority of any federal regulator, except in matters of fraud and market manipulation.
Congress had set out to give the CFTC its spot-market powers in legislation that aims to fully regulate the crypto markets. But Pham had argued that the CFTC already had some limited authority to allow for leveraged activity on its futures exchanges.
Read More: U.S. Regulator That May Rule Over Digital Assets Pushing Toward Crypto Spot Trading
UPDATE (December 4, 2025, 15:55 UTC): Adds comment from Bitnomial.
UPDATE (December 4, 2025, 16:14 UTC): Adds more detail from the company.
