U.S. CFTC's Pham Moves for Do-Over on 'Actual Delivery' Guidance on Crypto

Policy Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email U.S. CFTC's Pham Moves for Do-Over on 'Actual Delivery' Guidance on Crypto In what are likely her final days at the agency, the acting chairman checked another box from President Donald Trump's crypto agenda. By Jesse Hamilton | Edited by Nikhilesh De Dec 11, 2025, 7:55 p.m. Caroline Pham, acting chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has removed a key piece of crypto guidance. (Jesse Hamilton/CoinDesk) What to know : One of the leading U.S. regulators for crypto activity, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has scrapped its earlier definition for how assets change hands in a crypto commodities transaction. Acting Chairman Caroline Pham said the earlier guidance on "actual delivery" was withdrawn as part of President Donald Trump's efforts to create friendly crypto policies. U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Acting Chairman Caroline Pham has moved again to advance President Donald Trump's crypto agenda by eliminating old guidance on "actual delivery" of crypto commodities that she suggested might get in the way of the next steps. 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 . “Eliminating outdated and overly complex guidance that penalizes the crypto industry and stifles innovation is exactly what the administration has set out to do this year,” said Pham in a Thursday statement. The guidance, established in 2020 during Trump's first term, had sought to define "actual delivery" of assets during a crypto commodity transaction — a key concept under the Commodity Exchange Act. Law firm Steptoe had sought formal guidance from the CFTC defining the term as it applied to digital assets as far back as 2016. But the President's Working Group report on the administration's digital assets agenda earlier this year recommended that the CFTC should "consider expanding upon prior guidance on 'actual delivery' of virtual assets." The CFTC needed to cut the original document "in order to reevaluate such guidance in light of further developments during the past 5 years in the means and methods deployed in the spot market for the purchase and sale of virtual currencies," it noted in the withdrawal notice. Pham has driven a rapid series of crypto policy moves at the agency in the past couple of weeks, even as Trump's nominee to permanently replace her, Mike Selig, is heading toward a potential confirmation as soon as next week. Read More: The CFTC Just Defined What 'Actual Delivery' of Crypto Should Look Like U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Caroline D. Pham Donald Trump Digital Commodities 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 Do Kwon’s Sentencing Hearing Drags on as Court Weighs Mountain of Victim Testimony By Cheyenne Ligon | Edited by Nikhilesh De 8 minutes ago District Judge Paul Engelmeyer offered the Terraform Labs co-founder the chance to postpone his sentencing date, in light of hundreds of victim impact statements shared with the court in the past 24 hours. Read full story Latest Crypto News Coinbase Expands Reach of Stablecoin-Based AI Agent Payments Tool 4 minutes ago Do Kwon’s Sentencing Hearing Drags on as Court Weighs Mountain of Victim Testimony 8 minutes ago U.S. Senate Rolls Toward Last Vote on Confirming Crypto Regulators at CFTC, FDIC 32 minutes ago JPMorgan Pushes Deeper Into Tokenization With Galaxy's Debt Issuance on Solana 39 minutes ago Binance Overhauls Stablecoin Trading with Trump-Linked USD1 1 hour ago El Salvador Partners with Elon Musk’s Grok in AI-Powered Education for 1M Students 2 hours ago Top Stories Binance Overhauls Stablecoin Trading with Trump-Linked USD1 1 hour ago Bitcoin Stumbles Back Below $90K as Dollar Sinks to 7-Week Low After Fed Rate Cut 3 hours ago Crypto Investment Firm Blockstream to Acquire TradFi Hedge Fund Corbiere Capital 2 hours ago U.S. Senate Rolls Toward Last Vote on Confirming Crypto Regulators at CFTC, FDIC 32 minutes ago Fifth XRP Spot ETF on the Way After CBOE Approval of 21Shares Application 6 hours ago Robinhood Stock Slides 8% After Big Decline in November Trading Volumes 2 hours ago