Last Friday, SEC Chairman Atkins and CFTC Acting Chairman Caroline Pham issued a joint statement regarding the harmonization of SEC and CFTC regulatory frameworks, which the statement says is necessary “to ensure there is not a regulatory ‘no man’s land’ due to inaction by one or both agencies.” It follows up on a joint statement by the Staff of both agencies regarding the trading of certain spot crypto asset products, clarifying the views that SEC- and CFTC-registered exchanges are not prohibited from facilitating the trading of certain spot crypto commodity products.

The next step in the agencies’ combined efforts is a joint SEC-CFTC roundtable on regulatory harmonization to be held on September 29, open to the public (registration required to attend live) and webcast live on the SEC’s website. Potential areas of coordination to be discussed at the joint roundtable include event contracts, perpetual contracts, portfolio margining, DeFi and 24/7 markets. Here’s what the statement says about that last one:

For on-chain finance to scale, the SEC and the CFTC should collaborate to consider the possibility of further expanding trading hours, where appropriate. Factors that may be relevant to this consideration include operational feasibility and liquidity consistent with investor and customer protections. Certain markets, including foreign exchange, gold, and crypto assets, already trade continuously. Further expanding trading hours could better align U.S. markets with the evolving reality of a global, always-on economy. Expanding trading hours may be more viable in some asset classes than others, so there may not be a one-size-fits-all approach for all products.

– Meredith Ervine