CME Sues the CFTC Over Its Approval of Kalshi Crypto Perpetual Futures

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange sued the CFTC and chairman Michael Selig on June 18 over the regulator's approval of Kalshi crypto perpetual futures, a fight over whether perpetual contracts are futures or swaps under the Dodd-Frank Act.

CME Sues the CFTC Over Its Approval of Kalshi Crypto Perpetual Futures The Chicago Mercantile Exchange sued the CFTC and chairman Michael Selig on June 18 over the regulator's approval of Kalshi crypto perpetual futures, a fight over whether perpetual contracts are futures or swaps under the Dodd-Frank Act. Aaron Rafferty June 27, 2026 Key Takeaways CME, the largest United States derivatives exchange, sued the CFTC on June 18 over its approval of Kalshi crypto perpetual futures, the first such contracts cleared for American traders. The case turns on whether a perpetual future is legally a future or a swap under the Dodd-Frank Act, a classification that decides who can list the product and how it is taxed. CME shares fell about 9 percent since the May 29 order, and the CFTC called the suit frivolous, setting up a long fight over who controls crypto's largest market. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the most valuable derivatives marketplace in the United States, sued its own regulator on June 18, filing a 42-page complaint in federal court in Washington against the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and its chairman, Michael Selig. The trigger was a May 29 CFTC order that cleared the prediction market Kalshi to list Bitcoin perpetual futures, the first time the no-expiry contracts that dominate global crypto trading could be traded onshore in the United States. Coinbase later secured its own route. Perpetual futures have no expiration date and stay tethered to the spot price through a funding rate. CME argues they are swaps under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, the category Congress built for instruments that transfer price risk, with heavier requirements than ordinary futures. The CFTC approved them as futures, the lighter and faster path. In its complaint, CME says