CFTC Chairman Michael Selig Says New Crypto Rules Are Coming Soon. Here's What Crypto Investors Need to Know.

The Clarity Act, Congress's crypto market bill, failed a procedural vote in the Senate on Sept. 15, but that doesn't mean crypto won't be getting a new set of regulations. On Aug. 20, in advance of the Clarity Act vote, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Michael Selig said that he had told his staff to explore developing crypto rules under the agency's existing powers in case the legislative rulemaking attempt failed. Then, on Oct. 5, the CFTC followed through on that and published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking, which is the first formal step toward a regulation.

Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), Solana (CRYPTO: SOL), XRP (CRYPTO: XRP), and Hyperliquid (CRYPTO: HYPE) could all be affected by the proposed new rules. Here's what's on the table.

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These rules cover one of three rungs

On Oct. 5, Selig described crypto exchanges as a ladder.

Per his framing, the bottom rung constitutes ordinary exchanges selling coins to investors outright, whereas the exchanges in the middle rung also offer margin, which lets customers borrow to buy more, magnifying their losses along with their gains. The top rung adds derivative contracts that track a coin's price, such as futures and other derivatives.

The current proposal for new rules is set to cover only the middle rung. Exchanges that opt in could register as crypto asset markets, a new category.

If they do, they might need to report proof of their reserves, which is evidence that their customers' assets exist. Regulators might require that exchange accounts could only be run by brokers that segregate client money from house money. Furthermore, before listing a token, new listing reviews might be obligatory for crypto exchanges to examine the token's ownership concentration, its vesting schedules, and other factors so as to ensure compliance with new regulations.

Once the 60-day public comment period closes after publication in the Federal Register, the running journal of all U.S. government notices and actions, the CFTC could issue a proposed rule. After that, it will take in more public comments before finalizing the new package. Final rules look likelier in 2027 than this year.

Even then, a future commission could rewrite the rules, and Selig wrote that agency action can't substitute indefinitely for a law. Similarly, Selig wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the CFTC can't require all crypto trading to happen on exchanges registered with the agency, like CME Group, without approval from Congress. So this is a stopgap effort that will need shoring up later via the legislature.

Likewise, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is also acting to create new regulations, but its Sept. 17 exemption covers only tokenized stocks (shares recorded on a blockchain).

What do the new crypto rules mean for Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and Hyperliquid?

For Ethereum, Solana, and XRP, the asset classification fight is already largely over.

A joint CFTC-SEC interpretation in March 2026 categorized Ethereum, Solana, and XRP as digital commodities, making them explicitly not securities. The new rules as they're currently envisioned would mostly add federally supervised U.S. venues offering those assets on margin. Wider margin access could add more volatility, too, like that on Oct. 10, 2025, when forced selling to cover leveraged crypto positions cost investors more than $19 billion within 24 hours. That ended a historic bull run, during which many major cryptos set all-time highs.

But the new rules could also draw a lot of institutional money toward crypto.

Companies currently avoiding offshore or state-licensed crypto exchanges would get a federal option such as the regulated structure crypto exchange-traded funds provide. But remember, busier exchanges will enrich the exchanges first; coin holders will gain only if demand for the coins rises.

On that note, Hyperliquid is the most exposed of the four coins mentioned above.

Its core business, acting as a decentralized exchange for perpetual futures (contracts with no end date), will put it on the top rung of the categorization scheme, which the proposal doesn't cover.

What's more, Hyperliquid routes nearly all its protocol fees into buying back its own token, which is precisely the kind of repurchase program that the new listing reviews could examine. It's improbable that Hyperliquid would intentionally run afoul of a review, but given that the criteria aren't final yet, it's still a risk.

Don't sell what you own, and watch for the CFTC's formal proposed rule in the meantime. If the CFTC can calibrate its approach appropriately, the entire crypto sector could soon get a big influx of institutional capital, and that could drive coin prices up substantially.

Alex Carchidi has positions in Ethereum, Hyperliquid, and Solana. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Ethereum, Hyperliquid, Solana, and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.