Acting CFTC Chair Caroline Pham is accelerating efforts to introduce leveraged spot crypto trading on U.S.-regulated exchanges before the end of the year a move that could reshape how Americans trade Bitcoin and Ether.
Leveraged Spot Crypto Trading Could Launch Next Month
Caroline Pham, the Acting Chair of the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), confirmed she is working directly with regulated exchanges to launch leveraged spot crypto products as early as December.
Speaking to CoinDesk, Pham said she expects the new offerings to “begin trading in our markets before year’s end.”
“As we continue to work with Congress on bringing legislative clarity to these markets, we are also using existing authorities to swiftly implement recommendations in the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets report,” Pham stated.
The initiative would allow traders to use borrowed capital to buy and sell actual cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, rather than trading derivatives or futures contracts.
This means investors could take leveraged positions in the spot market, putting up only a fraction of their trade value as margin, with the remainder financed by brokers or exchanges.
Bringing Leverage Under Regulatory Oversight
Currently, U.S. traders seeking leveraged exposure often turn to offshore exchanges like Binance or OKX, which lack domestic oversight and carry higher risks.
Pham’s plan aims to bring this trading activity onto regulated U.S. platforms, ensuring institutional-grade risk management, clear margin rules, and investor protections.
These leveraged spot products would trade on Designated Contract Markets (DCMs) federally supervised exchanges already licensed to handle commodity products.
Coinbase Derivatives and Bitnomial are among the crypto-native firms with DCM status, while traditional market giants like CME Group and Cboe Futures Exchange are also expected to explore the new opportunity.
Pham Fast-Tracks Policy Before Stepping Down
Pham’s push for leveraged spot trading comes just weeks before she is set to step down from her interim role.
President Donald Trump has nominated Mike Selig, a senior SEC official and architect of the agency’s Crypto Task Force, as her permanent successor. His nomination is currently pending Senate confirmation.
In her final stretch as acting chair, Pham has moved swiftly to advance major crypto policies without waiting for new congressional laws, instead leveraging existing authority under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) which already requires leveraged retail commodity transactions to occur on federally regulated venues.
CFTC Positions Itself at the Heart of U.S. Crypto Regulation
Under Pham’s leadership, the CFTC has accelerated efforts to bring clarity and credibility to crypto markets.
Earlier this year, the agency issued guidance paving the way for spot crypto contracts to trade on registered exchanges, signaling a more proactive stance toward digital asset integration.
In September, the CFTC and SEC jointly clarified that exchanges regulated by either agency can facilitate spot commodity trading, including crypto assets a statement seen as a milestone in reducing regulatory uncertainty.
“The United States has long been the home of financial innovation,” the joint statement said, “but recently, novel products have been driven overseas by fragmented oversight and legal uncertainty. The SEC and CFTC should encourage the reversal of this trend.”
With the CFTC now pushing to open leveraged spot crypto trading by December, U.S. regulators appear ready to bring innovation back onshore — this time with stronger guardrails.
