Key Highlights:
- SEC and CFTC to hold their first joint roundtable after 14 years to align crypto rules.
- Wall Street and crypto leaders come together and show crypto a new place in the world of finance.
- The agencies aim to clear out confusion over crypto product rules and promote investor safety.
This afternoon, history will be made at the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) headquarters in Washington, D.C., as the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) will hold their first joint policymaking roundtable in over ten years. This event is the first time the agencies are coming together since August 2011, when they met to discuss global swaps regulation.
The session that is being held today, September 29, 2025, will focus on shared priorities such as cryptocurrency, prediction markets, and overseeing risks that cross different markets. It is also significant to note that leaders from Wall Street’s biggest exchanges will come together alongside figures from the digital asset industry.
With this meeting, it is for sure that crypto cannot be considered as an outsider that is trying to shake up the system as with these moves, the industry is being recognized as a key part of shaping the future of finance.
Key Participants
There are three distinct panels that will sit and shape today’s discussion. The first will feature Jeff Sprecher, CEO of Intercontinental Exchange (the parent company of New York Stock Exchange), CME Group’s Terry Duffy, and NASDAQ’s Adena Friedman. They will be joined by executives from Kraken, Polymarket, and Kalshi, platforms that are currently leading the way in crypto trading and decentralized prediction markets.
According to the post made by crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett, later sessions expand the conversations. Banking giants such as JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Citadel Securities will share the stage with Crypto.com, Robinhood, and Jump Trading, which highlights how traditional and digital finance are becoming more and more connected these days.
SEC Chair Paul Atkins, Democratic Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw, and Acting CFTC Chair Caroline Pham will start the event at 1:00 EST. They will set the stage for what regulators hope will be a useful conversation about making rules work together across different regions.
Why it Matters for Regulations?
The joint roundtable highlights the urgent need for clear rules as more people and institutions start using crypto products. The SEC and CFTC usually overlap in their roles and have disagreed on whether cryptocurrencies should be treated mainly as securities or commodities. This has stopped financial firms trying to enter the digital asset space.
By working together again, the agencies are depicting that they are willing to reduce rules that are duplicated, cause friction and hinder innovation. A shared framework could make it faster to approve products like crypto ETFs and prediction contracts. Even more importantly, it could protect investors in both traditional markets and new digital markets, without slowing down innovation.
What’s Different This Time?
The difference from 2011 is clear. Back then, talks were only focused on fixing derivatives rules after the financial crisis. Today, the focus is on fast-growing areas, such as cryptocurrencies and decentralized trading, and how they connect with traditional systems.
For the first time, digital-native exchanges are not pushed aside or seen only as enforcement targets. Their presence alongside Wall Street’s biggest names sends a strong message; the federal government now recognizes crypto as a real part of finance.
At the same time, Wall Street leaders meeting with crypto executives shows that digital asset trading can no longer be ignored. It is increasingly seen as an important area for growth and market liquidity.
Implications for Crypto
For the crypto world, this event is both symbolic as well as practical. Symbolic because it marks crypto’s move from being a disruptive outsider to a player in shaping market rules. Practically, it could set the stage for clearer paths to product approval, less fragmented enforcement, and better alignment between the SEC and CFTC.
If the roundtable leads to more consistent rules, major benefits could follow:
- Institutional adoption: Big financial firms may feel more confident entering crypto markets.
- Market maturity: Clearer rules could make it easier to offer stronger products like prediction markets, tokenized securities, and diversified ETFs.
- Investor protection: Harmonized rules lower the chance of gaps or overlaps that could put investors at risk.
Even though these two agencies are coming together today, the challenges will remain. It will take time for the two agencies, with different roles and internal politics, to work together. Crypto’s global borderless nature also makes creating rules in one country harder. Still, today’s meeting is an important step toward bringing them closer.
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