US Regulators Grant Relief to Passive Crypto Software Providers
US regulators have provided relief to qualifying passive software providers from introducing broker registration under specified conditions. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) Market Participants Division issued a no-action position on September 17, stating that it would not recommend enforcement for certain crypto broker registration requirements.
The relief applies to software facilitating user trading with regulated futures intermediaries and designated contract markets. This approach expands an earlier CFTC policy that applied to self-custodial wallet software. The new position broadly covers providers of passive software, but they must satisfy the conditions specified in the staff letter.
However, the relief applies only to the software activities identified by the division. Providers may facilitate trading between users and registered futures commission merchants, introducing brokers, and designated contract markets. This development follows earlier relief granted to Phantom Technologies in March, which developed self-custodial crypto asset wallet software.