CME CEO Says Crypto Perps Are Swaps While Suing CFTC Over Their Approval

CME Group CEO Terry Duffy says crypto perpetual futures are swaps, a classification that would bring them under stricter rules adopted after 2008, and CME is suing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to secure that label. The CFTC has instead approved a Bitcoin perpetual from prediction-market platform Kalshi as a futures contract on May 29; perps are leveraged contracts without an expiry date. Duffy argues their funding-rate payments make them swaps, while CME’s June 18 complaint says Kalshi’s perps target retail investors who also use CME products. The CFTC’s September 2 motion to dismiss argues CME lacks standing because it could list such contracts itself, and no ruling has been reported.