Welcome to the Monday edition of the Crypto In America newsletter!
What you’ll read: The CFTC will hold its first forum on AI-powered trading Wednesday, while crypto firms push the SEC for more clarity on secondary-market transactions and investment contracts under Reg Crypto. Plus, what to watch this week and the top stories making headlines.
With two crypto regulatory proposals in the pipeline, the CFTC is turning its attention to AI-powered trading and the pressing question of how to regulate it.
On Wednesday, the agency’s Innovation Task Force will bring together industry leaders from across finance, tech and crypto for its inaugural Frontier Forum on Super Intelligence. The discussion will explore how advanced AI could reshape U.S. financial markets and what that means for regulators tasked with overseeing AI-powered trading.
The forum comes as AI dominates conversations across industries, including crypto, where using blockchains and stablecoins to power autonomous AI transactions is emerging as an increasingly popular use case. Some industry leaders even argue that crypto may be better suited to AI agents than humans.
“Humans may have built crypto, but crypto is not so much money for humans as it is money for machines,” Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss said earlier this year.
Representatives from crypto firms Tempo, Hedera and Chainlink will join executives from AI and trading technology companies Ornn, Liquid Compute and OneChronos, as well as the Investment Company Institute, which represents the regulated fund industry.
Industry Asks SEC for Certainty in Absence of Clarity Act
When the Clarity Act died in the Senate last month, a fair amount of regulatory certainty died with it. The comment letters submitted on the SEC’s proposed Regulation Crypto Assets last week made that clear.
While many crypto firms backed the proposal, they pushed for greater certainty around when tokens are no longer tied to investment contracts, how secondary-market trading should be treated and whether network upgrades and token buybacks could trigger securities obligations. All issues the Clarity Act sought to address.
Few companies know the consequences of regulatory uncertainty better than Ripple and Coinbase, both of which spent years fighting the SEC in court. Ripple’s battle over XRP highlighted the need for clearer rules on how tokens are treated under securities laws, something the Clarity Act sought to address through its ancillary asset framework and a separate provision that would have granted non-security treatment to qualifying tokens, including XRP. Coinbase, meanwhile, was sued in 2023 over alleged unregistered securities trading before the SEC dropped the case in 2025. Those enforcement battles may be over, but the underlying regulatory questions remain top of mind for many in the space.
In its Reg Crypto comment letter, Coinbase called for a higher fundraising cap for token offerings and greater clarity on the treatment of airdrops and network rewards. In an October 20 letter, Cahill Gordon & Reindel, whose signatories included securities attorney Lewis Cohen, warned that Reg Crypto still leaves secondary-market participants in limbo. “For an independent participant, no amount of diligence can answer them with confidence,” the firm wrote, calling for an additional safe harbor.
The SEC, whose power is limited to its statutory authority, can’t offer the certainty of federal legislation, a reality many CEOs and market participants are weighing. Bullish CEO Tom Farley raised that concern on the Crypto in America podcast, warning that a future SEC chair could reverse agency initiatives “with the stroke of a pen.”
“It’s definitely riskier than having federal law, for sure,” he said.
👀 What To Watch This Week
Tuesday
SoFi (SOFI), Galaxy Digital (GLXY), Robinhood (HOOD) and PayPal (PYPL) report quarterly earnings.
Ripple’s annual Swell conference kicks off in New York.
10:00 AM: The SEC’s Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee meets to discuss proposals to make it easier for smaller companies to go public, followed by a discussion on potential changes to Regulation Crowdfunding at 1:00 PM.
U.S. new home sales data is released by the Census Bureau, providing a fresh look at the housing market.
Wednesday
1:00 PM: CFTC Chairman Michael Selig kicks off the Innovation Task Force’s inaugural Frontier Forum, tackling the rise of AI-powered trading and the challenges of regulating autonomous financial agents.
2:00 PM: The Federal Reserve announces its interest rate decision, followed by Chair Kevin Warsh’s press conference at 2:30 PM. Rates are expected to stay put, with attention turning to the prospect of a December rate hike.
Thursday
Coinbase (COIN), Strategy (MSTR), Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and Mastercard (MA) report quarterly earnings.
8:30 AM: Q3 GDP, September PCE inflation data and weekly jobless claims are due, offering a fresh look at economic growth, inflation and the labor market.
9:15 AM: The European Central Bank announces its interest rate decision, followed by President Christine Lagarde’s press conference at 9:45 AM.
Friday
Cboe Global Markets (CBOE) reports quarterly earnings.
8:30 AM: The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its Q3 Employment Cost Index, a key measure of wage and benefit inflation.
News Flash
Bitcoin Falls Below $80K: Bitcoin dipped to roughly $79,100 over the weekend and again Monday amid geopolitical tensions and uncertainty over the outlook for interest rates.
Anthropic Files for IPO: The Claude maker filed to go public on the Nasdaq under the ticker ANT. Traders on Hyperliquid are already betting on its eventual share price ahead of the listing.
Fairshake’s Ohio Spending Hits $56M: Defend American Jobs, an affiliate of crypto super PAC Fairshake, has now spent nearly $56 million backing Republican Senator Jon Husted and opposing Democrat Sherrod Brown in Ohio’s Senate race, according to FEC filings.
Tether Faces Scrutiny Over Bo Hines Ties: Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) is seeking answers about reported payments from stablecoin giant Tether to a consulting firm co-founded by former White House crypto adviser Bo Hines, who now leads Tether’s U.S. operations.
Netanyahu Floats Crypto Sanctions Workaround: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised the possibility of using crypto to circumvent potential international banking sanctions. Israel’s central bank pushed back on the idea.
Electrum Issues Emergency Security Update: The Bitcoin wallet released an emergency security update after attackers exploited a flaw that could trick users into sending funds to fraudulent addresses. At least one user lost Bitcoin.
Remember: New editions of the Crypto In America newsletter drop every Monday and Thursday.
If you like what you’re reading, don’t forget to subscribe!