CFTC Fights Back Against CME's Crypto Perpetual Futures Lawsuit

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has moved to dismiss CME Group's lawsuit over the treatment of crypto perpetual contracts as futures.

CME argues that these contracts should be considered swaps under both the Commodity Exchange Act and the Dodd-Frank Act, but the CFTC disagrees, stating that no fixed expiration date is necessary for futures contracts to be considered futures under federal commodities law.

The CFTC also disputes CME's claim of lost competition, citing its own trading data which shows Bitcoin and Ether future volumes in June and August were higher than the amount traded in May, the month KalshiEX's BTCPERP contract was approved.