U.S. CFTC-Driven Spot Crypto Trading Going Live, Opening Up New (Regulated) Arena

Policy Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email U.S. CFTC-Driven Spot Crypto Trading Going Live, Opening Up New (Regulated) Arena President Donald Trump's push toward friendly crypto policies produced a CFTC-led effort to encourage leveraged spot crypto trading, starting with Bitnomial. By Jesse Hamilton | Edited by Nikhilesh De Dec 4, 2025, 3:47 p.m. Caroline Pham, acting chairman of the CFTC, announced regulated spot crypto products are going live. (Jesse Hamilton/CoinDesk) The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is ushering in a new form of federally regulated crypto trading, having encouraged its regulated platforms to open up leveraged spot digital assets products, which is set to begin as soon as today with Bitnomial. STORY CONTINUES BELOW Don't miss another story. Subscribe to the State of Crypto Newsletter today . See all newsletters Sign me up By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . The Bitnomial exchange is regulated by the U.S. derivatives watchdog as a designated contract market (DCM), meaning this new activity will be launching in a fully regulated space, following strong encouragement from the federal agency — including direct meetings with Acting Chairman Caroline Pham to help the process along when the federal government was shut down for a prolonged period. "Recent events on offshore exchanges have shown us how essential it is for Americans to have more choice and access to safe, regulated U.S. markets," Pham said in a statement. "Now, for the first time ever, spot crypto can trade on CFTC-registered exchanges that have been the gold standard for nearly a hundred years, with the customer protections and market integrity that Americans deserve." The move, which Pham called a "historic milestone," tracks recommendations from the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, which had issued a report this year setting out a crypto agenda for U.S. regulators. Pham said the CFTC is "finally using our decades-long existing authority" to initiate this trading. Details on the trading launch haven't yet emerged from Chicago-based Bitnomial. It's one of several regulated DCMs at the CFTC, also including Coinbase, Kalshi and Polymarket. This was one of the first agenda items of the CFTC's so-called "crypto sprint" to implement the administration's pro-crypto policy goals. It was among Pham's priorities as she waited for her permanent replacement as chairman, which could be coming soon as the Senate advances the confirmation process for Trump nominee Mike Selig. Pham has been planning to leave the agency when the new chairman comes in, leaving that person alone in what's meant to be a five-member commission. The White House hasn't yet provided any other nominees to fill out the leadership, so the next chairman will take over the crypto policy surge solo. Among the other initiatives include a push for tokenized collateral that will include stablecoins, which is expected to happen early next year, and a broad rulemaking that inserts blockchain technology into a range of CFTC regulations. U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Spot markets Regulation Caroline D. Pham Donald Trump More For You Protocol Research: GoPlus Security By CoinDesk Research Nov 14, 2025 Commissioned by GoPlus What to know : As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M. GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month. Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B. View Full Report More For You Malaysia Forms Air and Ground Task Force to Shutdown 14,000 BTC Mining Rigs: Bloomberg By Olivier Acuna | Edited by Jamie Crawley 3 hours ago Authorities released a report revealing 14,000 illegal bitcoin miners siphoned electricity from the national grid worth $1.1 billion since 2020. What to know : Malaysian authorities are using drones and police to shut down nearly 14,000 illegal bitcoin mining rigs. The illegal miners have stolen $1.1 billion in electricity from the national grid since 2020. This crackdown follows a 300% increase in electricity thefts between 2018 and 2024. 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