US Approves High-Leverage Bitcoin Trading as Crypto Founders Face Fundraising Roadblock
The US has approved high-leverage Bitcoin trading while crypto founders remain legally blocked from raising funds.
On May 29, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approved a Bitcoin perpetual contract for the regulated US exchange Kalshi. Almost three months later, on August 18, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed a legal route through which crypto projects could someday raise money from the public under rules written for token networks.
The SEC's proposal allows token issuers to raise up to $75 million in funding, but it still needs to pass through public comments and another SEC vote. This is an unusual order in which Washington is rebuilding the American crypto market.
BTC traded around $77,000 on August 21, up about 22% over seven days. The CFTC's approval of Kalshi's BTCPERP contract established that a US platform can list a true crypto perpetual under existing derivatives law, and Bitnomial now offers one as well.
The SEC's Regulation Crypto Assets is still just a proposal that no issuer can use. For now, a regulated institution has a clearer route to trade a crypto derivative in the United States than a founder has to fund the token that might one day trade beside it.