The CFTC in the USA is taking a number of friendly steps towards the crypto market this week: a new CEO council, new licenses, and the cancellation of old rules.

Let us remind you that the CFTC is the Commodity Futures Trading Commission of the USA. In the past, when the Democrats were in power, the CFTC and SEC competed to see who could "pinch" the players in the crypto market harder, but now both agencies are crypto-friendly. Ultimately, let us remind you that this agency will regulate the trading of all crypto assets that are recognized as commodities.

This week, the CFTC launched several initiatives that effectively open the doors for deeper integration of the crypto industry into the American financial system.

1. New CEO of the Innovation Council at the regulator.

#CFTC formed a council of key leaders from the largest crypto and financial companies. The list includes not only industry representatives but also top managers from the old exchange infrastructure:

Crypto industry:

- Kraken - Arjun Sethi,

- Gemini - Tyler Winklevoss,

- Polymarket - Shane Koplan,

- Crypto․ com - Kris Marszalek,

- Bullish - Tom Farley,

- Kalshi - Tarek Mansour,

- Bitnomial - Luke Hurstin.

And also giants of traditional markets:

- CME Group - Terry Duffy,

- Cboe Global Markets - Craig Donohue,

- Nasdaq - Adena Friedman,

- ICE (owner of NYSE) - Jeff Sprecher,

- LSEG - David Schwimmer.

The council's task:

- discussion of the future of derivatives,

- integration of tokenization,

- development of 24/7 trading,

- creating infrastructure for the prediction market,

- assisting the regulator in shaping "next generation" rules.

In essence, the CFTC is systematically pulling both the crypto market and TradFi to the same table for the first time.

2. At the same time, it became known that the crypto exchange Gemini is obtaining a CFTC license to launch a prediction market on its platform.

After a 5-year review, Gemini Titan received a DCM license (Designated Contract Market). This is also a huge step: for the first time, a major crypto exchange is officially allowed to work with a product that has long been considered a "grey area".

3. And finally - CFTC cancels outdated regulation on digital assets.

The Commission announced a complete withdrawal of old rules related to the delivery of "virtual currencies". These regulations were considered an obstacle to innovation and "long outdated".

Now the regulator is ready to develop new standards based on the recommendations of the Working Group on Digital Assets.