NewsMV
Chicago Mercantile Exchange is in focus after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a motion Wednesday asking a federal judge to dismiss the exchange's legal challenge to cryptocurrency perpetual futures.
The CFTC argued CME has not demonstrated financial harm or increased competition from the agency's May decision to approve Kalshi's Bitcoin perpetual contract, and its attorneys described the lawsuit as "much ado about nothing." The dispute traces to May 29, when the CFTC approved the Kalshi contract, bringing a product long associated with offshore crypto trading into the regulated U.S.
Perpetual futures let traders hold leveraged long or short positions indefinitely, with funding payments between participants keeping contract prices aligned with the underlying spot market.
CME announced its challenge on June 18, arguing that a contract with no expiration or delivery date fits the Commodity Exchange Act's definition of a swap rather than a future, and that it therefore went through the wrong approval process.
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