Crypto firms side with CFTC in two perpetual-futures fights

Two legal battles now place major crypto and prediction-market firms alongside the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission as the regulator seeks new regulatory paths for perpetual futures tied to digital assets and individual stocks.

Coinbase, Kraken and Kalshi have joined the agency in a second confrontation with traditional finance. The earlier dispute involves CME Group and crypto perpetuals; the newer case covers perpetual futures linked to single stocks.

Traditional firms are trying to halt perpetual-futures trading in the United States. In the stock case, the Capital Markets Alliance, a new organization backed by Citadel Securities, Cboe and other securities firms, sued the CFTC for an emergency halt.

What is the stock-perps case about?

The CFTC has sought to open a new regulatory path for single-stock perpetual futures, following the path it pursued months ago for crypto perps. The securities industry immediately sued, arguing that the agency overstepped its authority and improperly treated the products as futures instead of swaps.

Single-stock perps have no expiration date and let investors speculate indefinitely on an equity's price movements. The Capital Markets Alliance says those contracts are securities-based swaps, which would place them under the Securities and Exchange Commission and outside the CFTC's remit.

That position puts the CFTC's authority to regulate the category at issue before the court.

Where do crypto firms stand?

Coinbase, Kraken and Kalshi made the opposing classification argument in the latest arguments. They contend that single-stock perps are very closely related to securities futures and belong in the same regulatory bucket.

Citadel Securities and other opponents of the CFTC go further. They say the products are swaps, which would mean the commodity regulator is out of bounds in trying to regulate them. Their case therefore turns on jurisdiction, not just the choice between two sets of derivatives rules.

This puts crypto and prediction-market firms on the CFTC's side for a second time in legal fights with traditional financial firms that want to stop perpetual-futures trading in the U.S. The alliance is backed by Citadel Securities and Cboe, while Coinbase, Kraken and Kalshi have argued in the stock dispute that the contracts belong with securities futures.

How does the CME fight overlap?

CME's dispute with the CFTC concerns crypto perps and raises the same classification issue. The company says crypto perpetual futures are swaps, too. But a win on that label would not necessarily remove the CFTC from the picture.

Even if crypto perps were treated as swaps, the CFTC would retain jurisdiction over them. They would face different regulations than if they stayed in the futures category, according to the competing legal theories described in the dispute.

The agency-authority effect differs in the stock case. The Capital Markets Alliance says swap status sends the contracts to the SEC, while crypto firms reject that route by comparing the products with securities futures.

For market operators, that classification determines which agency oversees the products and which regulatory regime applies. The two cases converge on the swap-versus-futures question, but not on the same jurisdictional outcome.

What happens next?

The immediate decision point is the court's response to the Capital Markets Alliance's emergency-halt request. If relief is granted, the CFTC's stock-perps path would pause; if denied, the agency could continue pursuing the category while the classification arguments proceed.

The next market-structure change will follow the court's ruling on emergency relief: a halt would freeze the CFTC's single-stock route, while denial would allow the agency to keep pressing its futures classification as both cases proceed.