Cboe-Backed Group Sues CFTC Over Single-Stock Perps Approvals

Perpetual futures on single stocks let traders hold leveraged, cash-settled bets on equities with no expiry, a structure crypto exchanges popularized and traditional venues have long been barred from offering domestically. The CFTC's derivatives arm oversees futures and swaps, while the SEC polices security-based swaps and stock trading, a jurisdictional line that has shaped crypto-adjacent products for years. Coinbase Derivatives, KalshiEX and Bitnomial applied to list these contracts on 18 September, and the CFTC under Chairman Michael Selig let the listings proceed.

If the court grants emergency relief, Coinbase Derivatives, KalshiEX and Bitnomial must pull or pause their single-stock perpetual listings before they reach traders, cutting off a product line these platforms built to compete with equity brokers. Retail and institutional users lose access to a leveraged, round-the-clock stock proxy they cannot get through Cboe or traditional futures markets. Cboe and Citadel Securities, whose alliance brought the suit, shield their own market structure from a rival product while the case proceeds.

The lawsuit turns on whether these contracts are ordinary futures or security-based swaps, a label that would hand jurisdiction to the SEC and strip the CFTC of authority to have approved them at all. Incumbent exchanges frame this as a regulatory end-run by crypto-native platforms; Coinbase, Kalshi and Bitnomial would argue the CFTC acted within its mandate. Either reading exposes a split in how US regulators treat perpetual-style products, one that predates this case and will outlast it regardless of the outcome here.

The Capital Markets Alliance has asked the Southern District of New York for emergency relief to vacate the approvals before the contracts go live, so the first marker is whether that court grants or denies the injunction request filed Tuesday. A grant would force Coinbase, Kalshi and Bitnomial to halt listings pending full review; a denial would let single-stock perpetuals trade while the underlying jurisdictional dispute between the CFTC and SEC works through litigation.