CME sues CFTC to oppose on-chain perpetual contracts; non-U.S. perpetual contract trading volume reached $60 trillion last year

According to Odaily, CME Group, the largest derivatives exchange operator in the United States, filed a lawsuit last month against the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and its chairman Mike Selig, opposing their approval of the prediction market platform Kalshi and a certain exchange launching crypto perpetual contracts. Last year, non-U.S. perpetual contract trading volume reached 60 trillion dollars.

CME claims that the CFTC misclassified the relevant products and improperly applied the law, stating that futures should have an expiration date, while perpetual contracts allow traders to take leveraged positions on the future price of assets without any expiration limitation. CME also argues that these products undermine its long-duration futures business and that the CFTC did not sufficiently consider the impact.

The dispute intensified during the early stages of the Iran conflict, when the demand for 24-hour perpetual crude oil price contracts on offshore DeFi exchanges like Hyperliquid and for on-chain prediction market trades related to the oil market increased. CME subsequently applied for accelerated introduction of 24-hour West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures trading, but this was blocked by the CFTC.

After Kalshi launched its first related product last month, it reported that its trading volume surpassed 1 billion dollars in less than a week. The CFTC is currently advancing the U.S. perpetual contract market through policy statements and case-by-case reviews instead of a new rulemaking process.