CFTC Chair Selig: Perpetual contracts will be judged on ‘asset-by-asset’ basis

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Michael Selig has reaffirmed that the agency will be evaluating perpetual futures listings individually for each asset because different assets pose different risks. 

This statement pushes back against industry expectations of blanket approvals after the commission approved its first Bitcoin perpetual future last month.

Will the CFTC give blanket approvals for perpetual futures? 

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Selig has confirmed that the agency will evaluate perpetual futures contracts one asset at a time. 

Selig clarified this after the CFTC approved its first Bitcoin perpetual contract on May 29. The main reason for the case-by-case review is that perpetual contracts for different assets present different risks. 

The CFTC’s official policy statement refers to perpetual contracts as having “unique characteristics” that can vary depending on the asset they reference. For example, a Bitcoin perpetual and an oil perpetual could raise very different questions about market safety and customer protection.

Due to the complex nature of perpetual futures contracts, the CFTC’s policy statement also clarifies that exchanges are expected to stop “self-certifying” their contracts. 

There has been some discussion regarding whether or not perpetual contracts count as “futures” or “swaps” under the Commodity Exchange Act, because perpetuals do not have a fixed expiration date. 

The legal distinction matters because futures trade on regulated exchanges with clear rules while swaps have different reporting and registration requirements. Selig wrote on X that futures don’t necessarily have a fixed end date. 

Courts and the CFTC have been in charge of which contracts count as futures over the years.

Is the perpetual market thriving in the U.S.?

The total global perpetual market hit over $60 trillion in 2025. Most of the market activity was coming from offshore, unaffected by U.S. rules.

However, now that the CFTC is handing out approvals for U.S. regulated perpetuals, exchanges are rushing to get it. Kraken, for instance, launched CFTC-regulated perpetual futures for eligible U.S. traders on June 14, 2026. 

The contracts are listed on Bitnomial, a CFTC-regulated exchange that Kraken’s parent company, Payward, recently bought. The initial lineup includes nine tokens: Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, XRP, Cardano, Chainlink, Dogecoin, Litecoin, and Avalanche. 

Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi said the launch lets customers trade spot, margin, futures, and perpetuals all in the same account. 

The CFTC’s Market Participants Division issued a letter confirming that some crypto perpetuals listed on foreign exchanges can be treated as “foreign futures,” allowing Coinbase Financial Markets to connect U.S. customers to offshore perpetual futures contracts markets through its license. 

Coinbase plans to launch its own U.S. perpetual-style futures product on July 21, 2026.

Kalshi, which received the original Bitcoin perpetual approval, saw more than $1 billion in trading volume in its first week.

Selig wrote, in his May 29 CoinDesk op-ed published on the CFTC website, that the commission’s previous failure to offer a workable domestic framework “predictably” drove trading offshore. 

Selig is currently the CFTC’s sole active commissioner on what is normally a five-member panel, giving him outsized influence over the pace and direction of these approvals.