cftc

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has previously secretly approved at least three insider trading investigations related to Polymarket trading, involving contracts related to Biden's pardons, the Iran war, and Google-related events. The relevant investigation documents were obtained by WIRED through the Freedom of Information Act.Among them, CFTC Chairman Michael Selig approved an investigation into contracts related to Biden's pardons in May, after a trader had profited over $300,000 in the relevant market; in the same month, the CFTC also approved an investigation into Iran war contracts, after a group of suspicious accounts was reported to have profited $2.4 million with a win rate of about 98%. In July, the CFTC further initiated an investigation into Google-related Polymarket contracts, focusing on individuals who may have traded using non-public information regarding Google's 2025 search rankings. The Southern District Attorney's Office in New York is also conducting a parallel investigation.It is currently unclear whether the aforementioned accounts are connected to previously investigated individuals. Polymarket stated that the company would refer the relevant matters to law enforcement and cooperate with the investigation. As the prediction market rapidly expands, U.S. regulators are clearly intensifying their scrutiny of insider trading and market manipulation.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) stated that fund managers reduced their net long positions in S&P 500 futures to the lowest level since last week.

Bitcoin News posted on platform X that after the CFTC approved Kalshi's Bitcoin perpetual contracts as futures products, traders face uncertainty on how to report gains to the IRS.If the product is classified as a regulated futures contract under Section 1256 of the U.S. Tax Code, related gains are typically treated as 60% long-term capital gains and 40% short-term capital gains, regardless of the holding period. CME believes that Kalshi's perpetual contracts are actually swaps, which are explicitly not covered under Section 1256. The CFTC's classification supports the view that it is a futures product, but does not bind the IRS; the tax treatment remains uncertain until the IRS, Congress, or the courts directly address Bitcoin perpetual contracts.

Crypto In America host Eleanor Terrett stated on X that the Republican Party of the U.S. Senate has released an updated text of the Clarity bill, reflecting changes from negotiations during the August recess.She noted that the ethical provisions section appears unchanged, and the provisions related to BRCA and stablecoin earnings remain the same.Changes include: requiring non-decentralized DeFi protocols to register with the CFTC, which aligns with Section 10301 of the Banking Committee's part of the bill; limiting DeFi provisions to spot or cash digital commodity trading, seemingly aimed at addressing tribal concerns about blockchain-based prediction markets; and clarifying the authority of credit unions to handle crypto assets.

According to CNBC, the prediction market platform Kalshi has received approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to launch perpetual contracts for gold and silver, marking the first non-cryptocurrency perpetual contract product approved by the CFTC.Kalshi was first approved to launch cryptocurrency perpetual contracts at the end of May this year, and as of now, the nominal trading volume of related products has reached 44 billion dollars.

According to The Block, Citadel Securities urged the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in a letter dated September 9 to reaffirm the SEC's regulatory authority over products related to U.S. publicly traded companies and their securities.The letter responds to the CFTC's self-certification process for event contracts. Citadel believes that event contracts associated with publicly traded companies should fall under the SEC's regulatory scope to ensure a clear and consistent regulatory framework for related products.

The Singapore Exchange (SGX) has received authorization from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) under the Regulation 48.1 framework to open its Bitcoin and Ethereum perpetual contracts to U.S. institutional investors. KC Lam, Head of Crypto Derivatives at SGX Group, stated that previously U.S. participants were unable to trade these contracts, but they are now permitted direct access to its trading system.Since its launch at the end of November 2025, SGX's crypto perpetual contracts have accumulated a trading volume of $5.8 billion (approximately 400,000 lots), with an average daily trading volume of 1,300 lots ($19 million) as of August. Bitcoin accounts for 66% of open contracts and 83% of average daily trading volume, with a single-day peak trading volume of 11,500 lots (notional value of $145 million). Lam indicated that as the FIS backend integration is fully ready, they will assist U.S. clearing members in onboarding clients in the next month or two.Unlike crypto-native platforms, SGX's perpetual contracts have no expiration date but employ a margin call and collateral top-up mechanism instead of automatic liquidation, separating trading and clearing based on traditional futures market infrastructure. Stablecoins are not accepted as collateral, and the contract benchmark index is jointly developed by SGX and CoinDesk Indices. SGX's next step is to launch Bitcoin and Ethereum futures and options.

According to Hyperliquid News, the Hyperliquid Policy Center has submitted a legal opinion to the federal court in Washington, D.C., seeking to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) against the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).The lawsuit involves the CFTC's prior approval of the launch of regulated cryptocurrency perpetual contracts in the U.S. through Kalshi. CME had previously filed a lawsuit regarding the related regulatory decision, while the Hyperliquid Policy Center supports the CFTC's side, arguing that the court should dismiss CME's lawsuit.

According to Bitcoin News, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has requested a Washington D.C. court to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) against Kalshi regarding Bitcoin perpetual futures contracts.Kalshi's cash-settled BTCPERP contract was approved on May 29, which has no expiration date, employs a funding rate mechanism, and tracks the spot price of Bitcoin. CME argues that contracts without a delivery date that continuously generate funding payments should be classified as swaps, not futures. In response, the CFTC stated that CME's lawsuit is "making a fuss over nothing" and pointed out that CME could also list similar products. Furthermore, the CFTC noted that CME's Bitcoin futures trading volume in June and August was higher than in May, indicating that related business has not been significantly affected. CME must submit a response by October 2.

Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange, submitted Form 1-N and Form BD-N to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on September 1 through Coinbase Derivatives and Coinbase Financial Markets, respectively, intending to launch single-stock perpetual contracts in the U.S. Coinbase's Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad stated that the next step for the related products still requires approval from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).The two documents pertain to registration as a securities futures exchange and a limited-purpose securities futures broker. Since March 20, Coinbase has been offering 10x perpetual contracts for stocks such as Apple, Nvidia, and Tesla to non-U.S. users, settled in USDC and supporting 24/7 trading. U.S. users were previously explicitly excluded from this product.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump stated that his administration is promoting the decentralized perpetual contract trading platform Hyperliquid to enter the U.S. market in a "fully compliant and legal manner." Last month, Trump mentioned that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) would be committed to bringing Hyperliquid to the United States. Subsequently, Kraken's parent company Payward announced that it is collaborating with the CFTC to offer certain crypto perpetual contract products related to the Hyperliquid market and its underlying Layer 1 blockchain to registered U.S. users through the CFTC-regulated platform Bitnomial.Nansen research analyst Nicolai Sondergaard believes that this arrangement may allow Hyperliquid to provide some underlying technology, liquidity, or market design without directly opening its existing platform to U.S. users, effectively building an independent U.S. product around Hyperliquid's infrastructure. He stated that U.S. users may have access to fewer markets, lower leverage, and more conservative risk controls; at the same time, he opposes comprehensive KYC, arguing that a one-size-fits-all KYC would undermine the privacy and permissionless access of legitimate users and push liquidity offshore.

Circle President and former CFTC Chairman Heath Tarbert stated at a hearing of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee that the GENIUS Act has established a federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, equivalent to building a "dollar layer" for the internet financial system. He urged Congress to next pass the CLARITY Act to complete the long-term regulatory framework for the "market layer" of digital assets.In addition, Tarbert also urged that the final implementation rules of the GENIUS Act should close the regulatory arbitrage space for offshore stablecoins, requiring intermediary institutions that actually serve U.S. customers to be subject to corresponding restrictions, and ensuring that foreign stablecoin issuers meet truly comparable regulatory standards.

Hyperliquid Policy Center CEO Jake Chervinsky disclosed on the X platform that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed a motion to dismiss CME's lawsuit regarding crypto perpetual contracts.The motion states that CME lacks standing to sue, arguing that CME itself can also offer perpetual contracts, so any harm is self-inflicted. Chervinsky relayed the CFTC's wording, stating "this lawsuit is just making a mountain out of a molehill."

According to The Information, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is reviewing relevant rules to address potential conflicts of interest between prediction market exchanges and their affiliated trading companies.

Ondo Finance is urging U.S. regulators to bring the business of perpetual contracts anchored to individual stocks under regulation, asserting that this product can operate in compliance under the existing securities and futures framework without new rules. In three comment letters sent to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on August 24, Ondo stated that existing rules can accommodate stock perpetual futures while considering modern margin practices and on-chain listing data. Ondo mentioned that its affiliated company in Panama has been offering stablecoin-settled perpetual contracts anchored to U.S. stocks overseas, with a cumulative trading volume reaching $8 billion as of August 14 since its launch in June.Ondo believes that regular funding rate payments can keep perpetual contracts aligned with the underlying stock prices, functioning similarly to the expiration settlement of traditional futures. In the letter, Ondo stated that there are no provisions in the statutory definition of securities futures products that require a fixed expiration date to be set. The company also pointed out that many offshore perpetual contracts have underlying stocks primarily traded on U.S. exchanges, and bringing the related business back to the U.S. should be a direction actively promoted by both agencies. According to RWA.xyz data, Ondo is one of the largest managers in the tokenized real-world assets (RWA) space, with an allocated value of approximately $2.6 billion as of Wednesday, ranking fourth.Ondo's proposal comes as U.S. regulators are re-examining the existing market rules for on-chain products, including perpetual contracts and tokenized securities. In March of this year, the SEC and CFTC signed a memorandum of understanding to coordinate regulation in overlapping areas of jurisdiction.

Prospect Markets announced that it has signed a final agreement with OG Prediction Markets and Crypto.com to launch event-based prediction market services in the United States.The prediction market will be open to U.S. customers through CFTC-registered introducing broker Prospect Brokerage, with the partnership relying on Crypto.com’s CFTC-registered futures commission merchant Foris DAX FCM LLC (OG Broker). Prospect Markets plans to launch related products in the United States in the third quarter of 2026.

According to Unchained, Andy Ross, head of institutional business at Kalshi, stated that the exchange submitted an application to regulators on Monday to launch perpetual futures contracts for foreign exchange and interest rates. As of Tuesday afternoon, the relevant documents had not yet appeared in the public filings of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.Kalshi had previously been approved to launch Bitcoin perpetual futures, later expanding to Ethereum and XRP, and has submitted applications for gold, silver, platinum, copper, and US500 perpetual futures that track large-cap U.S. stock indices. Ross mentioned that gold perpetual futures are close to being launched.Ross stated that Kalshi's perpetual futures operate within a regulated framework, so they will not offer high leverage, with specific leverage limits determined based on the volatility of the underlying assets. He also noted that a study released by Kalshi covered 2.2 million data points, showing that its market prices have a good match with actual outcomes, maintaining a certain level of pricing effectiveness even in markets with lower trading volumes.

Gate US's wholly-owned subsidiary Gate Futures LLC has completed the independent introducing broker registration with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and has officially become a member of the National Futures Association (NFA).