CME Group to Sue CFTC Over Approval of Bitcoin Perpetual Futures

The dispute centers on whether perpetual contracts should be regulated as futures or swaps under United States law.

The CME Group has said that it will sue the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over its decision to approve perpetual futures in the U.S.

CEO Terrence Duffy told CNBC on Wednesday that the firm plans to file the lawsuit on Thursday, saying its case will be based on the argument that perpetual futures are swaps under the Dodd-Frank Act.

Perpetuals Should Be Classified As Swaps

Duffy said CME believes the products should be treated as swaps instead of futures contracts, adding that the company’s benchmark licensing agreements mean providers offering them would need to work through the exchange.

“We have an exclusive license with every single provider of the benchmarks. So all of these would have to go through CME regardless of the perpetual,” said Duffy.

Perpetual futures are contracts that do not have an expiration date and allow traders to speculate on an asset’s price without directly owning it.

The development follows the CFTC’s May approval of Kalshi to offer BTC perpetual futures, making it the first time the product was greenlighted for the U.S. market. Meanwhile, the offering has already been widely used in international markets, with the prediction market platform already making plans to expand its range to include other cryptocurrencies.

Last year, Coinbase also became the first exchange to offer these derivatives to American investors through its Coinbase Financial Markets (CFM) platform.

Duffy Says CME is Ready for the Dispute

The CEO said the company has been preparing for the legal battle with its board for the past eight months and is prepared to proceed with the challenge.

You may also like:

“I’ve never shied away from one, and I won’t shy away from this…And that’s why I wanted to announce on your show that we will be filing this litigation tomorrow, because we are not taking this lightly,” he said.

Elsewhere, CFTC Chair Michael Selig has defended the agency’s decision to approve perpetual futures in the U.S., saying the move was aimed at allowing regulated products without expiration dates to become available domestically while ensuring they operate under American oversight.