CFTC staff let futures brokers put customer money in tokenized Treasuries and funds, but still not in stablecoins

What happened

The CFTC's Market Participants Division, Division of Market Oversight and Division of Clearing and Risk released updated answers to their frequently asked questions on crypto assets and blockchain technology on 24 September 2026. The FAQs were first published on 20 March 2026 to support Staff Letter 25-39, the tokenized collateral guidance, and Staff Letter 26-05, the no-action position on digital assets as margin collateral. Footnote 4 records what changed: Q12 on investing customer funds in tokenized forms of permitted investments, and Q13 to Q15 on keeping records on a blockchain, all new, with Q5 on uncleared swap margin updated. It also names the comment letters behind the update, from dYdX Labs, the Blockchain Association and the Solana Policy Institute, in response to the Commission's request for information of 16 June 2026. The answer to Q12 is yes, subject to four conditions: the underlying asset is itself a permitted investment under Regulation 1.25(a); "the tokenized form of the asset grants the holder legal and economic rights that are the same or functionally equivalent to the rights received by holders of the asset in its traditional form"; the investment meets all of Regulation 1.25's terms on liquidity, concentration, time to maturity and instrument features; and the tokens are held with an acceptable depository. For tokenized government money market funds, staff also expect a written acknowledgment letter from the custodian under Regulation 1.26(b). Q13 and Q14 say Regulations 1.31 and 45.2 are technology neutral, so staff "would not object if a records entity utilized blockchain (or distributed ledger) technologies to create and maintain onchain records". Q15 says staff would not object "solely on the grounds of an entity described above electing not to maintain offchain version(s) of records". Where the ledger is public and permissionless, the entity should be able to produce records "even if a public and permissionless blockchain network (or its associated block explorer) was not accessible". What did not change is Q4. Asked whether a futures commission merchant may invest customer funds in payment stablecoins, the answer remains "No", Staff Letter 26-05 having "no effect on the list of permitted investments of customer funds in Commission Regulation 1.25".

Why it matters

The update draws a line through the middle of tokenized finance. A broker's customer money may now sit in a tokenized Treasury or a tokenized government money market fund on the same terms as the conventional form, but not in a payment stablecoin, although the same FAQ lets a futures commission merchant take payment stablecoins from customers as margin and deposit its own as residual interest. To the CFTC's staff a stablecoin is collateral and not an investment, and a tokenized fund is an investment. The test is worth reading against the Federal Reserve's the same day. The Board would admit a tokenized reserve asset to a stablecoin issuer's reserves only where it confers rights "identical" to the conventional form; CFTC staff accept rights that are "the same or functionally equivalent". Two regulators wrote a test for the same instrument on the same afternoon and chose different words for it. On records, one report narrows the document. CoinDesk writes that firms "may not even have to maintain offchain versions of the records if the firm is using a private network". The answer to Q15 carries no such condition: staff would not object to any covered entity keeping no offchain version, and a public and permissionless ledger changes the controls expected rather than the answer.

What is not settled

None of this binds the Commission. The FAQs say they "are not intended to, do not, and may not be relied upon to create any new binding rules or regulations", and that they "do not necessarily represent the views of the Commission". Which ledgers count as public and permissionless is not defined; footnote 31 says only that market participants "are welcome to engage with Commission staff" on it. Who can hold the tokens is set by existing lists rather than by anything new. Staff expect tokenized investments to be held with a depository under Regulation 1.20(b), or a custodian acceptable under Regulation 1.26(b) for money market funds. Ledger Insights observes that this may include many of the national trust companies the OCC has recently authorised, which is its inference and not the FAQ's. Whether any merchant or clearing house has yet invested customer money in a tokenized instrument is not stated.