On 17 September 2026, the Market Participants Division (MPD) of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued Staff Letter 26-25, announced in Press Release Number 9300-26. The letter sets out a no-action position for providers of passive software and their personnel. A staff no-action position is a statement of enforcement intent by a Commission division rather than a rule or a Commission order, and it binds the issuing division alone.
The registration categories in question are the introducing broker and the associated person of an introducing broker, both defined and made subject to registration by the Commodity Exchange Act. MPD stated that it will not recommend that the Commission take enforcement action against a covered provider for failure to register in either category. The position applies solely to the provision and marketing of software that facilitates trading by the provider's users with registered futures commission merchants, introducing brokers and designated contract markets, and it is available subject to conditions specified in the letter.
Wallet software publishers, front-end interface developers and non-custodial trading application providers that route user orders to registered CFTC intermediaries are the parties positioned to rely on the letter. Registered futures commission merchants, introducing brokers and designated contract markets on the receiving side keep their own registration and compliance obligations unchanged, because the letter addresses only the software provider's registration status.
MPD described the position as matching the one given in Staff Letter 26-09 and now broadly available to providers of passive software, which widens relief that had been narrower in reach. A staff no-action position is not a safe harbour created by rule: the Division can withdraw or modify it, it does not bind the Commission or private litigants, and it is lost where a provider steps outside the stated conditions. Software that takes on order handling, custody of customer funds or solicitation sits outside a position addressed to passive software.
Licentium and its partner network advise digital asset application developers and financial intermediaries on CFTC registration and derivatives compliance. Work we undertake includes registration status analysis for software providers, no-action condition mapping, intermediary agreement review, and CFTC staff engagement.