Crypto and precious metals may currently suit 24/7 trading, CFTC chair Selig says

On Tuesday, CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said crypto and precious metals “may currently be suitable for 24/7 trading” in U.S. derivatives markets.

He told regulators and market operators to gear up for what he called the “mass tokenization” of finance.

June consultation tests nonstop energy futures and oil perpetuals

Selig spoke at the New York Federal Reserve’s U.S. Treasury Market Conference. The agency will not apply a cookie-cutter rulebook to every product, he said.

Agricultural products, energy and certain financial contracts may not suit nonstop trading, Selig said.

The CFTC in June opened a public comment window on 24/7 energy futures and perpetual contracts linked to physical commodities such as crude oil.

In June, Selig also said the CFTC would review perpetual contract listings on an asset-by-asset basis.

$1.2 quadrillion derivatives market must prepare for tokenization

“With developments like tokenization, onchain finance, and 24/7 trading, the next decade will likely bring more change to financial markets than the previous several decades combined,” he said.

Selig likened tokenization to the move from open-outcry hand signals to electronic trading. High-quality tokenized collateral “has the potential to make liquidity more dynamic and markets more resilient,” he said.

Daily Treasury futures turnover grew from about $200 billion to about $900 billion over 20 years, said Selig. Approximately half of the $1.2 quadrillion of global notional derivatives sits under the CFTC.

In February, the CFTC added certain payment stablecoins issued by national trust banks to its list of eligible collateral. In March, tokenized collateral FAQs were issued.

Selig said the commission seeks more ways to “encourage responsible stablecoin adoption for market participants, exchanges, and clearinghouses.”

Selig took over the CFTC in December 2025 and launched an innovation task force covering crypto, AI and prediction markets earlier this year. He is the lone active commissioner on a panel that normally has five members.

The CLARITY Act, the market-structure bill to set the ground rules for crypto, failed to capture the 60 votes it needed in the Senate on September 15. The next day, Selig posted on X that the CFTC is “locked in and ready to ship its rules for the new frontier of finance.”

The SEC issued its Innovation Exemption on September 17, opening a path for tokenized securities venues to engage in onchain trading of certain tokenized U.S. stocks.

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