Which US regulator changed crypto collateral?

TLDR

The U.S. regulator that changed crypto collateral is the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

1. The CFTC approved Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and USDC for use as derivatives margin collateral on 8 Dec under a pilot program, with guardrails and reporting requirements (Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance).

1. The agency withdrew Staff Advisory 20-34 and its 2020 actual delivery guidance to modernize treatment of crypto collateral and delivery rules (Cointelegraph, Bitcoinist).

1. The pilot also recognizes tokenized Treasuries and money?market funds as eligible collateral, with strict segregation, custody and weekly disclosures (Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance).

Deep Dive

1. CFTC Decision

The CFTC authorized BTC, ETH, and USDC as eligible margin collateral for futures and swaps in a supervised pilot beginning 8 Dec. The move embeds crypto deeper into regulated U.S. derivatives markets and sets compliance expectations for brokers, clearinghouses and participants (Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance).

This pilot arrives alongside broader CFTC steps to bring more crypto trading and collateralization inside federally supervised venues, signaling a shift from restrictive interpretations toward principles?based oversight (Cointelegraph).

2. What Was Withdrawn

To enable the pilot, the CFTC pulled Staff Advisory 20-34 that had effectively constrained crypto as customer collateral at Futures Commission Merchants. It also withdrew the March 2020 actual delivery guidance that limited margin and leverage without rapid delivery conditions, citing market evolution over five years (Bitcoinist, Cointelegraph).

These withdrawals reduce legacy friction points around custody, delivery timing and capital treatment, replacing them with reporting and segregation frameworks that better match tokenized assets characteristics (Cointelegraph).

3. Scope and Guardrails

Eligible collateral in the pilot spans BTC, ETH, USDC and tokenized versions of U.S. Treasuries and money?market funds, with asset segregation, surveillance and weekly holdings reports required for participating firms. This adds transparency and operational checks while testing tokenized collateral at scale under federal oversight (Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance).

Other regulators acted on adjacent topics but not collateral rules. For example, the OCC said banks can intermediate riskless principal crypto trades without holding inventory, a brokerage function rather than a collateral change (Reuters via Yahoo Finance).

Conclusion

The CFTC is the U.S. regulator that changed crypto collateral, approving BTC, ETH, USDC and select tokenized RWAs within a supervised pilot while retiring restrictive legacy guidance. This could accelerate institutional integration of crypto into derivatives plumbing, with transparency and segregation guardrails balancing innovation and risk.