CFTC Chairman Selig says the Commodity Exchange Act already works for Bitcoin

Congress has spent years arguing over how to regulate crypto. The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission thinks the law already on the books is doing fine. CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig said on October 5, 2026, that the Commodity Exchange Act has worked well. He added that its definition of a commodity is broad enough to cover Bitcoin and crypto more generally. The timing matters. His remarks landed the same day the agency published an early-stage plan for two new rulebooks aimed at leveraged crypto trading platforms. What Selig said, and what the CFTC proposed Selig made the comments during a keynote at the Fordham Law Blockchain Regulatory Symposium in New York. His core argument was simple: the CEA defines commodities expansively, and digital assets fit inside that definition. He also pointed to Bitcoin’s history under the statute. Bitcoin was first classified as a commodity back in 2014. That designation opened the door to regulated Bitcoin futures trading in the years that followed. Selig invoked the “Lindy effect” in discussing Bitcoin. The concept holds that the longer something has survived, the longer it is likely to keep surviving. Alongside the speech, the...