Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act amends the Commodity Exchange Act to regulate cash or spot digital commodity markets through the CFTC. It defines digital commodity exchanges, brokers, dealers, associated persons, blockchain terms, and customer-property concepts; directs CFTC rulemakings; creates expedited and provisional registration; preserves existing law for non-digital commodities and certain SEC-regulated instruments; gives the CFTC jurisdiction over digital commodity transactions; requires trading certification and approval; creates registration regimes for digital commodity exchanges, brokers, and dealers; registers associated persons; protects software developers from regulation solely for publishing or maintaining code absent specified conduct; clarifies customer property; lets the CFTC assess fees to implement the framework; establishes an Office of the Digital Commodity Retail Advocate; and requires a report on demographic participation in digital commodity markets.
Who Benefits and How
Digital commodity exchanges benefit from a defined CFTC registration path and provisional status process. Digital commodity brokers benefit from a clearer federal registration regime instead of uncertain ad hoc enforcement. Digital commodity dealers benefit from rules tailored to digital commodity market activity. Retail digital commodity customers benefit from customer property rules and a dedicated retail advocate office. Software developers benefit from protections that limit regulation based solely on code development or publication. CFTC benefits from fee authority and clearer jurisdiction over digital commodity intermediaries.
Who Bears the Burden and How
CFTC must write rules, process registrations, supervise intermediaries, collect fees, operate the retail advocate office, and report on market demographics. SEC must coordinate where implementation touches securities law or shared jurisdiction. Digital commodity exchanges must register, certify products, comply with core principles, and pay implementation fees. Digital commodity brokers and dealers must register and comply with CFTC conduct, capital, customer-property, and associated-person rules. Associated persons must register and meet conduct requirements. Customer property custodians must comply with property segregation and protection rules.
Key Provisions
- Adds definitions for digital commodity intermediaries and market infrastructure.
- Requires CFTC rulemakings and expedited or provisional registration processes.
- Establishes CFTC jurisdiction over digital commodity transactions.
- Requires registration and regulation of digital commodity exchanges.
- Requires registration and regulation of digital commodity brokers and dealers.
- Provides protections for software developers who are not acting as regulated intermediaries.
- Clarifies customer property treatment, implementation fees, retail advocacy, and demographic reporting.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Creates a CFTC-led regulatory framework for digital commodity intermediaries, including definitions, rulemakings, expedited and provisional registration, jurisdiction, exchange certification, exchange and broker-dealer registration, associated-person rules, software-developer protections, customer property rules, implementation fees, a retail advocate office, and demographic reporting.
Key Policy Areas
Financial Regulation, Digital Assets, Consumer Protection
Primary Purpose
Creates a CFTC-led regulatory framework for digital commodity intermediaries, including definitions, rulemakings, expedited and provisional registration, jurisdiction, exchange certification, exchange and broker-dealer registration, associated-person rules, software-developer protections, customer property rules, implementation fees, a retail advocate office, and demographic reporting.
Policy Domains
Bill provisions
Identified Gains
- Digital commodity exchange companies
- Digital commodity broker firms
- Digital commodity dealer firms
- Retail digital commodity customer investors
- Software developer employees
- CFTC staff
Identified Costs
- CFTC staff
- SEC staff
- Digital commodity exchange compliance officers
- Digital commodity broker compliance officers
- Digital commodity dealer compliance officers
- Associated person registrants
- Customer property custodian managers
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
ReportedPlaced on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. …
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. Original measure reported to …
Mr. Boozman, from the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Digital commodity brokers, Digital commodity dealers, Digital commodity exchanges
Positive-direction: Digital commodity exchanges
Negative-direction: Digital commodity brokers, Digital commodity dealers
CFTC, Digital Commodity Retail Advocate, SEC
Positive-direction: Digital Commodity Retail Advocate
Negative-direction: CFTC, SEC
Associated persons, Customer property custodians
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "sec"
- → Securities and Exchange Commission
- "commission"
- → Commodity Futures Trading Commission
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology