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CFTC Chair Pushes Back on Four Perpetual Futures Criticisms
Selig addresses four criticisms of perpetual futures — duration, leverage, consultation, funding rates. Cites 100+ public comments from 2025. Implications for crypto derivatives oversight and CFTC-SEC boundary.
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The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission fired back at four common attacks on cryptocurrency perpetual futures contracts. Chair Michael Selig posted a statement on X addressing what he called misconceptions around contract duration, leverage limits, public consultation, and funding rates.
Selig rejected the argument that perpetuals fall outside the legal definition of a futures contract because they never expire. Neither the Commodity Exchange Act nor CFTC rules requires a fixed expiration or delivery date for a contract to qualify as a futures product, he said. The criteria come from court decisions and commission interpretations, and neither source mandates a predetermined expiration.
On leverage, critics warned that the recently approved BTCPERP contract would give U.S. traders access to 250x. Selig said extreme leverage has historically come from offshore venues, not from the perpetual structure itself. Any perpetual operating under CFTC oversight must comply with the same leverage restrictions that apply to other regulated futures products in the U.S.