Since last year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have put aside years of jurisdictional disputes and begun unprecedented deep collaboration. What does this mean for the entire crypto ecosystem?

The cooperation between the two agencies started in the conference room. In September last year, they announced their first joint roundtable in 14 years, bringing together representatives from exchanges and traditional financial institutions to sit down and discuss how to resolve regulatory fragmentation. Key topics included unifying product definitions, simplifying data standards, and addressing emerging needs such as 24-hour trading markets and portfolio margining.

The collaboration on paper is also substantial. The joint statement explicitly calls for increased cooperation in areas like crypto assets, perpetual contracts, and DeFi. The subsequent regulatory guidelines cover the entire chain from spot trading to derivatives, providing market reassurance.

At the policy level, both agencies demonstrate their strengths while complementing each other. The SEC introduced mechanisms like "Crypto Projects" and "Innovation Exemptions" to clarify token classifications, while the CFTC launched the "Crypto Sprint Plan" to clarify rules, enabling exchanges to list compliant spot crypto products. This is not competition but division of labor.

Most importantly, the advancement of the "Clear Act" is underway. This legislation categorizes crypto assets into digital commodities and investment contract assets, legally clarifying that the CFTC handles anti-fraud enforcement and spot trading, while the SEC oversees issuers and investment contracts. From now on, the crypto market finally has a clear "traffic light."