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 perpetual futures in the United States. The CFTC had approved Kalshi's plan to list the product, marking the first time the regulator greenlit perpetual futures in the U.S. CME Group CEO Terrence Duffy argued that Kalshi's product did not meet the Dodd-Act's definition of a swap and therefore should not have been approved. The lawsuit targets the CFTC's decision to treat Kalshi's perpetual futures as permissible derivatives. The dispute centers on how the regulator is handling these products and whether a prediction market platform can expand into leveraged products that compete with traditional futures exchanges.
Kalshi to defend its perpetual-futures structure in court just as it races to convert $5.5 billion in two-week volume into sticky flow. An adverse ruling would compel Kalshi to restructure the product or exit the perps market entirely.