The White House has published new guidelines on virtual currencies to give regulators more clearly defined roles.
These steps aim to clarify the overlapping jurisdiction between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
The policy report had been drafted by the Working Group on Digital Assets, set up by former U.S.President Donald Trump.
It addresses issues such as market structure, taxation policy, as well as reinforcing the US dollar as a significant player in international finance.
One of the key points is providing the CFTC authority over spot crypto markets that have long existed in some kind of limbo when it comes to regulation.
This division implies that the SEC will still oversee virtual currencies that are securities, while the CFTC oversees commodities like Bitcoins.
By splitting regulation tasks, US regulators hope to avoid confusion from laws as well as redundant court fights that have held back crypto development.
Blockchain law specialist Edwin Mata too received the development warmly and, importantly, underscored its influence of creating a system of converged law standards.
He explained that there had always been difficulty for the courts to harmonize unfavorable decisions because of blurred commission jurisdiction between both commissions.
Banking Access Still Limits Crypto Expansion
There may also be some relief for investors in such clarity, which may attract institutional players into the game. Undefined roles have been one of the sector’s biggest problems, which has deterred long-term planning on the part of companies that play in the space.
The report followed the recent closure of a long-running publicized case against Ripple Labs by the SEC. The SEC had, in 2020, claimed that Ripple had illicitly raised $1.3 billion through the unauthorized sale of its XRP token.
The SEC had, up to March 2025, dropped its appeal after agreeing to a $125 million penalty from Ripple, which concluded the long court fight that had lasted for years.
This historical case put into question increased clarity on regulator directives, especially since a 2023 court decision only designated XRP as a security in institutional transactions. It was the Ripple decision that created case law which formed the basis of some of the White House’s recent proposals.
While the guidelines are an important step, experts emphasize that more has to be done on segments such as banking regulations as well as on custodial services.
Most companies still find it hard to set up accounts or obtain financial infrastructure of the sort needed for efficient operations. As such things evolve, regulators hope that cooperation of the sort of the SEC and CFTC will provide long-term clarity to the US virtual currency space.
