CFTC Challenges CME Lawsuit Over Crypto Perpetual Futures Treatment

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed a motion to dismiss a civil suit filed by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group.

The CME had claimed that the regulator's treatment of cryptocurrency 'futures' as 'swaps' went against Congress, and that CFTC Chair Michael Selig had unilaterally acted without a full panel of five commissioners.

In a June complaint, CME argued that this treatment was in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act, but the CFTC says that any CFTC-registered exchange can list perpetual futures on digital assets like Bitcoin (BTC).

The motion to dismiss claims that CME lacks standing because it cannot show that it has suffered financial injury from the CFTC's authorization of perpetual futures contracts.