The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group said it was taking legal action against the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over cryptocurrency perpetual futures.
In a Thursday filing in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, CME filed a complaint against the CFTC and its chair Michael Selig over the agency’s regular approvals of perpetual futures tied to crypto. The lawsuit stemmed from a May 29 notice from the CFTC approving perpetual futures contracts tied to the spot price of Bitcoin (BTC) for prediction markets platform Kalshi and issuing a no-action position for similar products on cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.
According to CME’s filing, the CFTCโs approval of such products went against directives from the US Congress by treating โfuturesโ as โswapsโ with expiration dates. The company alleged that the agency was in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act and a court should vacate its actions over perpetual futures, noting that Selig had unilaterally acted without a full panel of five CFTC commissioners.
โWith one stroke of his pen, [Selig] overrode Congressโs definition of the term โswapโ and circumvented the regulatory regime Congress required for that form of derivative,โ said the complaint, adding:
โThe CFTCโs failure to evenhandedly, consistently, and correctly apply the CEA risks harming competition and destabilizing derivatives markets.โ
Source: PACER
The lawsuit came just one day after CME CEO Terrence Duffy said that the company would be taking legal action against the CFTC. In a Monday CNBC interview, Selig said that perpetual futures contracts โtrade very similarlyโ to others, describing the CFTCโs position as โgood for investorsโ and claiming that the Commodity Exchange Act โdoes not define the term โfutures contract.โโ
A CFTC spokesperson told Cointelegraph that CME had engaged in โlawfareโ against the agency and the administrationโs crypto policies, calling the complaint โfrivolous.โ
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Kraken also announced the launch of perpetual futures trading for US users through CFTC-regulated platform Bitnomial.
CME CEO Terry Duffy. Source: CNBC Fast Money
Selig acts alone on prediction markets, perpetual futures, CFTC agenda
Confirmed by the US Senate in December 2025, Selig remains the chair and sole commissioner at the CFTC in a leadership panel intended to consist of a bipartisan group of five people. As of Thursday, US President Donald Trump had not announced any nominations to fill the seats, despite urging from many members of Congress to do so.
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