Chicago Mercantile Exchange, a unit of CME Group (CME), has filed a lawsuit against the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, and its Chairman, Michael S. Selig, over approvals for perpetual contracts to be listed as futures, a copy of the lawsuit showed Thursday.
The lawsuit comes after the commission approved a request from KalshiEX LLC to list a perpetual contract tied to Bitcoin for trading in US markets as a future rather than a swap, the designation CME says the CFTC had previously applied to such instruments.
CME said the CFTC approved Kalshi's application on May 29, 2026, one day after it was submitted, without public comment or addressing more than 150 comments received after an earlier request for comment on how perpetual contracts should be classified.
CME claimed that if the approval were allowed to stand, it would enable Kalshi and others to list similar perpetual contracts, thereby circumventing strict regulatory requirements set by Congress.
CME said the approvals would allow Kalshi to compete unfairly with CME's retail-focused cryptocurrency futures products and asked the court to vacate the CFTC's order and related policy statement.
CME also asked the court to declare that Kalshi's Bitcoin perpetual contract and similar digital commodity perpetual contracts are swaps, not futures.
The lawsuit was filed with the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
The CFTC did not immediately respond to' request for comment.
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