The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has cleared perpetual futures on individual stocks, and by evening a new trade group had sued to stop it. Chairman Michael Selig said on 3 November that equity perps are “deemed approved under existing security futures rules”, the first time such contracts can trade on registered US exchanges, CoinDesk reports.
Perpetuals never expire, and they are a crypto staple. DeFiLlama data cited by CoinDesk shows more than $630 billion of perps volume over the past month. Selig said American traders should not have to use offshore and often unregulated venues.
The suit came that afternoon. The Capital Markets Alliance, a new group whose members it lists as Cboe, Citadel Securities and Healthy Markets Association, filed in the Southern District of New York. It argues the products are security-based swaps that belong to the SEC, and that the CFTC broke administrative law by not explaining its change of stance.
A CFTC spokesman called the group anonymous and accused it of using litigation to block innovation. The American Securities Association’s chief executive, Chris Iacovella, separately said the agency had sidestepped a congressional ban on selling security-based swaps to retail investors. CME Group has already sued over the earlier crypto perps decision.
That earlier decision approved bitcoin perps on a regulated US exchange about five months ago. Stocks are harder because they sit under both securities and commodities law, which is why the two regulators have promised to share oversight.
What is missing is any product. Neither report says which exchanges will list equity perps, which stocks will be available, or when trading starts. Nor is it known whether a court will pause the policy, or where the SEC stands.
