Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the US is closer than ever to establishing clear cryptocurrency regulatory rules, following a meeting of the CFTC Innovation Advisory Committee on August 20.
Garlinghouse made the statement in a post on X after the committee gathering, which brings together regulators, industry participants and outside experts to advise the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on digital asset oversight. The CFTC has primary jurisdiction over crypto derivatives and spot commodity trading under current US law, though regulatory authority remains split across multiple agencies including the SEC, which asserts jurisdiction over crypto tokens it deems securities.
The CFTC Innovation Advisory Committee was established to provide recommendations on how existing regulatory frameworks apply to digital assets and whether new rules are needed. The committee includes representatives from exchanges, custodians, trading firms and other market participants. Its meetings are open to the public and minutes are published.
Garlinghouse's statement comes as the industry has spent more than a decade seeking regulatory clarity. Bitcoin and Ethereum have operated without binding rules, with the SEC asserting they are unregistered securities while the CFTC treats them as commodities. Stablecoins, decentralized finance tokens and layer-two network assets remain unaddressed in binding federal rules. Ripple itself has fought the SEC in litigation since December 2020 over whether XRP qualifies as a security under Howey test standards.
Multiple bills addressing crypto regulation have been introduced in Congress since 2023, including frameworks that would assign clear jurisdictional lines between the SEC and CFTC. None have passed into law. The Responsible Financial Innovation Act, drafted by Senators Lummis and Gillibrand, would create a new digital asset regulator within the CFTC structure, but it has not advanced to a floor vote in either chamber.
The CFTC has moved faster than the SEC on some fronts. It approved spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US in January 2024 and spot Ethereum ETFs in July 2024, both of which operate under existing commodity derivatives rules. The SEC approved similar spot Bitcoin and Ethereum products on the same timeline under its own securities framework, creating redundant parallel approvals.
The CFTC Innovation Advisory Committee can only advise; it cannot change existing law or SEC jurisdiction claims. If clear rules reach the market, Congress would need to pass legislation redefining which agency owns which asset classes and establishing uniform compliance standards across them.
