CFTC moves to dismiss CME lawsuit over crypto perpetual futures

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has asked a federal court in Washington, D.C. to dismiss a civil lawsuit filed by CME Group over the agency’s handling of crypto perpetual futures. In a Wednesday filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, lawyers representing CFTC Chair Michael Selig and the commission asked for a hearing on the motion to dismiss. The agency said CME lacks standing and cannot show that it is likely to suffer financial injury. CME sued the CFTC in June after the commission approved perpetual futures contracts tied to the spot price of Bitcoin for prediction markets platform Kalshi and issued a no-action position for similar products on cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. In that complaint, CME argued that Selig acted unilaterally without a full five-member commission and that the CFTC violated the Commodity Exchange Act by treating “futures” as “swaps” with expiration dates. The CFTC said CME cannot make a “concrete showing that it is in fact likely to suffer financial injury,” adding that “any CFTC-registered exchange can list perpetual futures on digital assets.” The filing said CME does not argue that it could not list the same type of contract itself. “This lawsuit is much ado about nothing,” the filing said. In response to the original lawsuit, a CFTC spokesperson told Cointelegraph that CME had engaged in “lawfare,” and the agency called the June complaint “frivolous.” Selig and the CFTC requested an oral hearing on the motion. As of Thursday, no hearing had been scheduled on the public docket.