Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said this week that Treasury will use its convening power to push the SEC and the CFTC into closing crypto's rule gaps, six weeks after the Senate parked the CLARITY Act. Speaking at Ripple's Swell conference beside chief executive Brad Garlinghouse, he argued that dollar-pegged stablecoins, which he said now account for more than 90% of the stablecoin market, extend US financial reach. "We will keep our military umbrella, but increasingly, it becomes a technological umbrella," he said, as reported by CoinAligator. The Senate rejected cloture on 15 September by 49 votes to 50, eleven short of the 60 needed. That roll call is in our September vote story. A statute is still missing. Agency rules are the path Bessent is offering instead.
The files already open are an advance notice and a proposal, not a market-structure law
The CFTC piece is Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets, an advance notice published in the Federal Register on 13 October. Comments close on 14 December 2026. Chair Mike Selig's voluntary registration path for exchanges, covered in Monday's CFTC note, sits on that same notice. It cannot require every spot venue to register. The SEC side is the proposed Regulation Crypto Assets: a one-time offering exemption of up to $5 million over four years, a larger exemption of up to $75 million in each 12-month period, and a conditional safe harbor from the investment-contract label. SEC Chair Paul Atkins has said rules written without a statute do not outlast a single administration. Both statements can be true at once. Bessent is promising speed. Atkins is describing the limit of that speed. The GENIUS Act's federal stablecoin framework is scheduled to take effect on 18 January 2027, which is the nearest hard date on the calendar.
Selig asked who is liable when software trades the coins
A day before Bessent's remarks circulated widely, Selig used the CFTC's Frontier Forum on 28 October to ask how existing rules apply when software holds crypto and trades it. TokenPost said he offered a refrigerator that stakes ether and spends the rewards on groceries, and called the picture no longer science fiction. He asked whether a developer must register, who is liable if the software goes off course, how a regulator knows on whose behalf an agent is trading, and whether firms need a "know your agent" rule beside know your customer. He also said similar models could trade in the same direction at the same time, which would complicate surveillance. Coinbase launched Agentic Wallets in February with user-set spending limits. Binance launched AI Agent Skills in March. Neither product answers the registration question. Bitcoin was near $79,800 and ether near $2,310 as those comments landed, the tape in today's market lead. The dates to watch are 14 December for CFTC comments and 18 January for the GENIUS Act. Read the rest of the file on the regulation desk.