CME plans to sue CFTC to block Kalshi's bitcoin perpetual futures
CME Group plans to sue the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to block Kalshi from offering bitcoin perpetual futures in the United States, CEO Terrence Duffy announced. The planned legal challenge targets the CFTC's recent approval of perpetual futures for Kalshi, a regulated prediction market platform. CME argues that the products do not meet the Dodd-Act's definition of a swap and should not have been approved as futures. The dispute centers on how the regulator is classifying and overseeing these crypto-style derivative contracts. Kalshi had planned to list the product after receiving what the CFTC approved as the first such offering in the U.S. CME, the dominant U.S. derivatives exchange, contends the regulator violated federal law in granting that approval.
Kalshi must now defend its perpetual futures approval in court while racing to capture retail crypto trading volume. A ruling against the CFTC's classification would force Kalshi to restructure the product or exit the market just as competing venues launch their own derivatives.
CME's challenge marks the first time an incumbent derivatives exchange has sued the CFTC to block a rival's product approval, arriving just two days after the regulator cleared bitcoin perpetual futures for Kalshi and Coinbase and as multiple new prediction-market venues race to launch.