The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is enhancing its market oversight by deploying Nasdaq’s advanced surveillance technology platform to monitor derivatives and digital asset markets.
CFTC Modernizes Surveillance With Nasdaq Technology to Monitor Derivatives and Crypto
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Advanced Nasdaq Surveillance Platform to Help CFTC Detect Market Manipulation
The new system replaces the CFTC’s 1990s-era legacy infrastructure. It will provide automated alerts and cross-market analytics to help the agency detect fraud, manipulation, and abusive trading practices across traditional and emerging asset classes.
Acting Chairman Caroline D. Pham announced the move as part of a broader agency modernization effort pledged in March.
“As our markets continue to evolve and integrate new technology, it’s critical that the CFTC stays ahead of the curve,” Pham said. The platform will benefit each of the CFTC’s operating divisions and improve efficiency in identifying unusual trading activity, allowing staff to take action more quickly.
According to the CFTC release, Nasdaq Market Surveillance is the most widely used technology of its kind globally, serving over 50 exchanges and 20 regulators. Its flexible architecture offers a unified view of market activity with granular data insights, capable of scaling during periods of high volume and volatility.
The CFTC oversees a wide array of dynamic derivatives markets, including fixed income, commodities, currencies, and more recently crypto assets. The growth in these markets, alongside innovations like continuous trading hours, requires increasingly sophisticated oversight tools.
The Nasdaq platform enables integrated monitoring across CFTC jurisdictions, supporting detailed transaction-level analysis and generating automated alerts across multiple products and trading venues. It also provides access to comprehensive order book data for real-time analysis, which is critical for monitoring both traditional and crypto markets.
Nasdaq President Tal Cohen said, “We’re proud to partner with the CFTC and support their mission to promote the integrity, resilience, and vibrancy of U.S. derivatives markets.” The implementation follows a White House-directed “ crypto sprint” as the agency prepares for further growth in digital asset markets.
