The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has added a slate of blockchain industry leaders and traditional finance executives to its newly formed CEO Innovation Council.
Announced Wednesday, the council will focus on market-structure issues across the derivatives markets regulated by the CFTC. Key discussion areas will include “tokenization, crypto assets, 24/7 trading, perpetual contracts, prediction markets and blockchain market infrastructure.”
Participants include the CEOs of Polymarket, Kalshi, Kraken, Gemini, Bitnomial, Crypto.com and Bullish, alongside senior executives from major traditional exchanges such as CME Group, Cboe Global Markets, Nasdaq, Intercontinental Exchange and the London Stock Exchange Group.
“We are building on the success of the CFTC Crypto CEO Forum and the SEC-CFTC Joint Roundtable with our CFTC CEO Innovation Council, specifically focused on market structure developments in derivatives markets,” said acting CFTC Chair Caroline Pham.
CFTC advancing efforts to modernize derivatives market infrastructure
The CFTC’s latest step comes just days after acting chair Caroline Pham unveiled a crypto-collateral derivatives market pilot program. The initiative will allow CFTC-registered futures commission merchants to accept Bitcoin, Ether and Circle’s USDC as margin collateral as the agency tests how digital assets can be integrated into regulated derivatives markets.
Pham’s recent actions signal a willingness to more directly engage with the crypto sector and set clearer regulatory parameters—an area where the US Securities and Exchange Commission has faced greater challenges.
Earlier this year, the agency launched the Crypto CEO Forum, bringing together leaders from firms including Coinbase, Circle and Ripple. At the time, Pham pledged to “deliver on the Trump Administration’s promise of ensuring that America leads the way on economic opportunity.”
