Wall Street may soon trade like crypto, SEC and CFTC propose 24/7 model

Key Takeaways

SEC and CFTC heads suggested Wall Street could trade 24/7 like the crypto market. However, they recognized that a "one-size-fits-all" approach may not work. The statement recognized an American's right to self-custody.

The leaders of the top U.S. market regulators have proposed that Wall Street run 24/7, just like the crypto market.

On Sep. 5, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Paul Atkins and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Acting Chairman Caroline Pham issued a joint statement, proposing that the U.S. financial markets run online constantly — in contrast to during limited business hours on weekdays.

"Certain markets, including foreign exchange, gold, and crypto assets, already trade continuously."

However, the statement added that extending trading hours may be more appropriate for some asset classes than others, and a "one-size-fits-all" approach may not work.

Related: What is Crypto? Cryptocurrency explained

Clarity to event and perpetual contracts

The SEC and the CFTC also seek to provide clarity to prediction markets that want to offer event contracts, including those based on securities, in the U.S. market.

The agencies could also seek to onshore perpetual contracts that are common in offshore crypto markets. This way, these products could be traded across SEC- and CFTC-regulated platforms.

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'Innovation exemptions' to DeFi protocols

Both agencies also seek to consider “innovation exemptions” to allow traders to engage in peer-to-peer (P2P) trading of spot, leveraged, margined, or other transactions in spot crypto assets and crypto derivatives such as perpetual contracts over decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.

"The right to self-custody one’s assets is a core American value."

Traders are already free to trade spot crypto products, and the path to P2P spot crypto trading remains open, the statement added.

Securities and non-securities markets converge

Both bodies issued a joint statement to underline their increasing coordination as the markets for securities and non-securities are increasingly converging.

On Sep. 2, both the agencies issued another joint statement that current law doesn't prohibit SEC- or CFTC-registered exchanges from facilitating trading of certain spot crypto assets.

This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Sep 5, 2025, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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