PANews, June 18 – According to CNBC, outgoing Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) CEO Terrence Duffy said the CME will sue the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over the agency’s recent approval of crypto perpetual contracts. Duffy stated that perpetual contracts are effectively swaps under the Dodd-Frank Act, which will serve as the legal basis for the lawsuit, and the CME will file the suit on Thursday. Duffy said the CME holds exclusive licenses with all benchmark providers, and all perpetual contracts must go through the CME in any case.

The CFTC approved Kalshi to offer Bitcoin perpetual contracts at the end of May, marking the first time this asset class has been approved in the United States. Kalshi has since expanded perpetual contracts to other cryptocurrencies. Duffy, who will step down as CEO in March 2027, said he has been planning this with the board for eight months, “I’ve never backed down from a fight, and I’m not going to back down from this one.”