Crypto Perpetual Futures Coming to US Within Weeks, CFTC Chairman Reveals
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig and SEC Chairman Paul Atkins discussed perpetual futures, prediction markets, and market structure during a panel discussion on Tuesday.
The chair of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Michael Selig, announced that the regulatory agency will be addressing the handling of perpetual futures contracts for digital assets in the near future.
During a panel discussion held on Tuesday by the Milken Institute in Washington, DC, Selig revealed that the CFTC has been working to bring "true perpetual futures" to the United States "within the next month or so."
As of Tuesday, Selig remains the sole commissioner at the CFTC who has received Senate confirmation, and there has been no public indication that US President Donald Trump plans to nominate candidates to fill the four commissioner positions that remain vacant at the agency.
"The prior administration drove a lot of these firms and the liquidity offshore," Selig remarked during the panel conversation that included SEC Chair Paul Atkins.
The CFTC chair further stated that the commission is preparing to issue guidance concerning prediction markets "in the very near future." During February, he asserted that the agency possesses "exclusive jurisdiction" over the regulation of platforms that offer event contracts, countering numerous enforcement actions at the state level targeting companies such as Kalshi and Polymarket.
Market structure bill will impact SEC and CFTC
The SEC chair spoke about concerns surrounding the digital asset market structure legislation currently making its way through Congress, which experts suggest has been effectively paused while discussions continue on topics including ethics, stablecoin yield and tokenized equities. Atkins stated that the agency requires a "sense of Congress enshrined in statutory form" to "direct the courts where to go" and bolster the commission's work on cryptocurrency matters.
"There's only so much you can do without legal certainty from Congress," Selig remarked in response to Atkins' comments.
The Senate Banking Committee had not set a markup session to review the market structure bill as of Tuesday. Last week, the White House convened the most recent in a sequence of discussions with industry leaders focused on stablecoin yield, though it remained uncertain whether these conversations would lead to the legislation advancing.