CFTC Motion to Dismiss CME Lawsuit: Bitcoin Perpetual Futures Classification Battle in U.S. Courts

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a motion this week in federal court in Washington D.C. to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange against Kalshi's approval to list Bitcoin perpetual futures contracts. This procedural filing marks a direct regulatory pushback in the ongoing classification dispute that has placed traditional futures exchanges against crypto-native derivatives platforms. The CFTC described the CME challenge as much ado about nothing and pointed to a lack of actual competitive harm demonstrated by the plaintiff. CME had sued the agency after Kalshi obtained approval to offer Bitcoin perpetual contracts on its prediction market platform and the agency approved the listing. The lawsuit argued that Kalshi's product should not have been classified under CFTC rules as a futures contract but instead qualified as a bilateral swap requiring dual agency oversight.