CFTC Files to Dismiss CME's Crypto Perpetual Futures Lawsuit

The CFTC moved to dismiss CME's crypto perpetual futures lawsuit on Sept. 2, arguing CME lacks standing and any alleged competitive harm is self-inflicted.

Crypto Regulation & Derivatives News

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is pushing back against CME Group's legal challenge to its approval of cryptocurrency perpetual futures. The agency filed a motion on Sept. 2, 2026, in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, asking a federal judge to dismiss the case entirely.

The CFTC

CME's lawsuit "much ado about nothing" and argued the exchange has not demonstrated any concrete financial harm.

The dispute traces back to a CFTC order issued on May 29, 2026. That order approved Kalshi's Bitcoin

contract, known as BTCPERP. The contract is cash-settled, tracks Bitcoin (

) prices continuously, carries no expiration date, and uses a funding rate mechanism to keep its price close to the spot market. The May 29 order said the CFTC's analysis also applied to similarly structured contracts tied to other digital commodities with deep, active and continuous spot markets.

CFTC Says CME Can List the Same Products Itself

CME filed its lawsuit on June 18, 2026. The exchange argued that contracts with no expiration or delivery date, where traders make periodic payments to one another, should legally be treated as swaps rather than futures. CME also accused the CFTC of bypassing proper rulemaking procedures and of departing from earlier enforcement cases in which it had classified crypto perpetuals as swaps.