CFTC | Crypto

The CFTC’s lawyers called the lawsuit “much ado about nothing,“ claiming that the CME Group lacked standing to file and argued against its claims over crypto perpetual futures. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed a motion to dismiss a civil suit filed by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group, which claimed that the regulator’s treatment of cryptocurrency “futures” as “swaps” went against Congress. In a Wednesday filing in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, lawyers representing CFTC Chair Michael Selig and the commission requested a hearing to address the motion to dismiss the CME lawsuit, claiming the group lacked standing.  CME filed suit against the CFTC in June after the commission approved perpetual futures contracts tied to the spot price of Bitcoin (BTC) for prediction markets platform Kalshi and issued a no-action position for similar products on cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. The June complaint argued that Selig had unilaterally acted without a full p...

Kalshi reportedly plans to file for approval of a WTI crude oil perpetual futures contract that would trade around the clock five days a week without an expiration date. Prediction market operator Kalshi will reportedly seek regulatory approval for a West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil perpetual futures contract that never expires. The contract could be filed with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as soon as next week, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. It would trade 24 hours a day, five days a week, according to Reuters. If approved, it would be the first oil-linked perpetual futures product to trade on a regulated US platform. Read more

Ondo says existing US securities laws can accommodate perpetual futures tied to individual stocks as regulators look to bring more derivatives activity onshore. Ondo Finance is urging US regulators to bring perpetual futures tied to individual stocks onshore, arguing that the products can already operate under the country’s existing security futures framework without new rules. In three Aug. 24 comment letters to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Ondo argued that existing rules can accommodate perpetual stock futures while also accounting for modern margining practices and onchain market data. Ondo said its Panama-based affiliate already offers stablecoin-settled perpetual futures on individual US-listed stocks outside the United States, with the platform recording $8 billion in cumulative trading volume as of Aug. 14, around six weeks after its launch. Read more

A settled CFTC order adds a $65,000 penalty and three-year ban while crediting KalshiEX’s assistance. The post White House aide turned secret speech text into $107k on prediction markets before CFTC stepped in appeared first on CryptoSlate.

A judge stayed the CFTC’s civil case against a soldier who allegedly used nonpublic information for a Polymarket bet, but the regulator is trying to weigh in on the criminal case. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a soldier who allegedly made more than $400,000 using nonpublic information to trade event contracts on prediction market platform Polymarket, is pushing back against attempts by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to weigh in on his criminal case. In a Monday filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Van Dyke’s lawyers opposed the CFTC’s efforts to file an amicus brief relating to claims in his case. The letter referred to the commodities regulator’s counsel filing a notice requesting permission from the court to provide its views on many of Van Dyke’s defense claims, including that event contracts on platforms like Polymarket were not “swaps” under the purview of the CFTC. “The CFTC is no sheep ‘friend of the Court’ here,” said defense attorneys. “It is a regulatory ...

The scheduled cloture vote will test the bill's 60-vote coalition, while existing CFTC powers stop short of Congress's full framework. The post CLARITY gets a September Senate floor date as CFTC signals a limited regulatory fallback appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Michael Selig said at a meeting of the Innovation Advisory Committee that he had directed CFTC staff to explore developer protections and other crypto-related policies. Michael Selig, who chairs the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), signaled that the agency would not be idle while Congress continued to debate provisions in a cryptocurrency market structure bill. In prepared remarks for the inaugural meeting of the CFTC’s Innovation Advisory Committee on Thursday, Selig said that the commission would move forward on crypto regulations even in the absence of the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act being passed by lawmakers, adding it would “help [Donald Trump] deliver if Congress will not.” According to the chair, he had already directed staff to allow registered and non-registered entities to offer “crypto asset trading on a leveraged or margined basis” and explore developer protections. “We’re going to give CLARITY its breathing room for a vote, but if the Democrats cannot support a bipar...

The regulatory review could shape an emerging market that lets companies and investors trade and hedge the cost of increasingly scarce AI computing power. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is preparing to solicit public comment on futures contracts tied to computing capacity, a critical resource for artificial intelligence development, as major exchanges move to launch products tied to the emerging asset class. Bloomberg reported Monday that the regulator sent a request for comment to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review. The move could complicate the timeline for planned compute futures from CME Group and Intercontinental Exchange, whose products remain subject to regulatory approval. Once the White House review is complete, the CFTC is expected to open a public comment period, typically lasting 30 or 60 days, according to Bloomberg. The review signals that regulators are still weighing questions around a market that would allow participants to trade and hedge the cost ...

The CFTC will hold a meeting for its Innovation Advisory Committee on Aug. 20 to address regulation related to crypto assets, artificial intelligence and prediction markets. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced a committee meeting to advise the agency on policy issues, including a potential exploration of how to address cryptocurrency regulation in the absence of congressional action. In a notice issued Thursday, the CFTC said it would hold a meeting for its Innovation Advisory Committee on Aug. 20 to address regulation related to crypto assets, AI and prediction markets. Among the potential topics to be discussed on crypto were “areas where regulatory action can complement future congressional legislation,” likely referring to the US Senate failing to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act before breaking for an August recess last week. The CFTC announcement followed a similar notice of a meeting to be held by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday. ...

CFTC Chair Michael Selig said on Aug. 4 that the agency has crypto rule proposals ready and plans to finalize them before the current administration ends, regardless of whether Congress passes the CLARITY Act. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce has separately said the SEC can keep pursuing meaningful crypto rulemaking even if Congress fails to act. […] The post SEC and CFTC plans to write crypto rules without Congress – but they can’t make them permanent appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The order escalates a jurisdictional fight over whether states may treat federally regulated event contracts as illegal gambling. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) invoked its emergency authority on Tuesday, ordering prediction market Kalshi to continue operating. The CFTC said that New York’s enforcement action and request for a temporary restraining order themselves constituted a market emergency and directed Kalshi to continue operating in accordance with its normal practices and the Commodity Exchange Act’s Core Principles. New York’s requested temporary restraining order would bar Kalshi from operating a business offering contracts tied to sports, culture, elections and other events in or from New York or to people in the state. The CFTC said the order could prevent Kalshi from offering all event contracts nationwide because it is based in New York. According to the CFTC, New York is seeking at least $36 billion in compensatory damages pending an accounting. Read more

Regulators allege Goliath promised crypto liquidity-pool returns but instead paid earlier investors and funded its founder’s luxury spending. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed separate civil lawsuits on Tuesday against Goliath Ventures and founder Christopher Delgado over an alleged crypto Ponzi scheme that raised about $400 million.  The SEC said Goliath raised at least $425 million from more than 1,300 investors through an unregistered securities offering. Investors were told their money would be placed in crypto liquidity pools, but the agency alleged none of the funds or crypto assets were invested in the pools and Delgado diverted at least $51 million for personal use.  In a separate action, the CFTC said about 1,600 customers contributed at least $397 million after Goliath solicited funds for crypto trading in Bitcoin and Ether. Read more

A New York judge granted a motion filed by US prosecutors in July to stay the CFTC’s civil case against Gannon Ken Van Dyke over making more than $400,000 on prediction markets. A federal judge ordered that a civil case initiated by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) be stayed pending the outcome of a criminal case against a US soldier who is alleged to have used nonpublic information to profit from a Polymarket event contract on the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. In a Monday ruling in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, District Judge Andrew Carter granted a motion filed by prosecutors in July to stay the CFTC’s civil case “pending the outcome of the criminal proceeding.”  The cases against Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a US Army Special Forces Master Sergeant, involve allegations of making more than $400,000 on Polymarket event contracts tied to Maduro’s removal. According to the US Justice Department, Van Dyke was involved in the operation to oust Maduro in ...

The ruling leaves New York’s case against Kalshi in place while allowing the CFTC to renew its request before Judge Victor Marrero. Judge Jed S. Rakoff denied without prejudice an emergency Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) request for a temporary restraining order that would have blocked New York from pursuing its enforcement case against prediction market operator Kalshi. Rakoff found that the CFTC had not shown a high likelihood of success on the merits or a likelihood of irreparable harm. The CFTC may renew the motion before Judge Victor Marrero on Friday, Aug. 7, according to the order. New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Kalshi last Friday, alleging that it operates an illegal, unlicensed gambling business by offering contracts tied to sports, elections and other events. The New York State Gaming Commission issued Kalshi a cease-and-desist order in October 2025. Read more

Weeks ago, the U.S. CFTC opened the gates for crypto perps with its first listing approval, but major derivatives player CME is fighting back against what it sees as a diversion from the law.

For the second time this year, the regulator told prediction markets to stop issuing overly broad, template-style certifications of events contracts. For the second time this year, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a warning to prediction markets operators to follow the rules when creating contract certifications that operators consider cover a broad swath of events contracts. The CFTC, which claims to be the primary regulator of prediction markets, on Friday issued an advisory clarifying that, notwithstanding ongoing policy discussions and proposed rulemaking concerning prediction markets, the markets retain the ability to certify event contracts as compliant with the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations without prior commission approval, subject to the statutory framework governing self-certification. The agency on Friday warned about the number of instances of events contracts that are “self-certified” by the platforms under the agency’s jurisdiction “without supplying the te...

The Bitcoin donation can be used to support Donald Trump as a New York court considers whether to reverse a $5 million settlement between the CFTC and Gemini. With a court set to consider a reversal of a $5 million settlement from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC’s) case with cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, the company has sent $10 million in Bitcoin (BTC) to a super political action committee (PAC) supporting President Donald Trump. According to the MAGA Inc. Super PAC’s July report to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) filed on Monday, the Gemini Trust Company run by co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss sent two separate contributions of more than $5 million in Bitcoin on June 19.  The donation, which the PAC may use for independent expenditures to support Trump, was recorded about three weeks after the CFTC filed a joint motion with Gemini in federal court in an attempt to reverse a January 2025 settlement over the company allegedly making false or misleading statements. CFTC Chai...

According to one lawyer testifying before a House subcommittee hearing, the CLARITY Act could grant the CFTC the authority it needs to address the “explosive growth of prediction markets.” Lawmakers in the US House Committee on Agriculture’s Subcommittee on Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development held a hearing on how the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) could address oversight of prediction market companies, including discussions of pending crypto market structure legislation. In a Tuesday hearing on “Examining Customer Protections and Market Integrity in Sports Event Prediction Markets,” Carl Kennedy, a partner at New York law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman, said that the CFTC was likely too “short-staffed” to fully deal with the regulation and enforcement of prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket. According to the lawyer, the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act under consideration in the US Senate could grant the commodities regulator additional authority not...

Matching FEC rows name Gemini because it liquidated the same bitcoin, not because the exchange donated another $10 million. The post Winklevoss twins gave Trump’s super PAC $10 million 23 days after CFTC joined Gemini relief bid appeared first on CryptoSlate.

“We are disappointed by this decision and believe it is unfair to Kalshi,” the company’s legal counsel said on X. Kalshi says it is being put in an “impossible position” after the US commodities regulator on Tuesday said it was blocking the prediction market platform from canceling trades in Michigan, contradicting a recent state court order. On June 29, Kalshi was ordered by Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina to cease offering sports betting contracts to Michigan users while a lawsuit over whether Kalshi violated the state’s sports betting laws plays out. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered Kalshi on Tuesday not to comply with the state order and continue operating. “We are disappointed by this decision and believe it is unfair to Kalshi,” Robert DeNault, the company’s head of enforcement and legal counsel said in a statement on X.  Read more