CFTC asks a federal court to dismiss CME Group's lawsuit over crypto perpetual futures

On October 16, 2026, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission asked a federal judge to dismiss CME Group’s lawsuit challenging U.S. crypto perpetual futures, arguing CME had not plausibly shown that allowing competing exchanges to offer the contracts would increase competition or harm it. The filing in CME v. Selig before Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly follows the CFTC’s earlier dismissal motion on September 2. CME sued on June 18 after the CFTC approved KalshiEX’s Bitcoin perpetual contract, BTCPERP, on May 29; Michael Selig was then the agency’s only confirmed commissioner. Perpetuals lack expiration dates, and CME contends they are swaps rather than futures under the Dodd-Frank Act and Commodity Exchange Act, a distinction affecting margin, registration and tax rules.