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The largest US derivatives exchange group, and since 18 June 2026 the plaintiff in the case that will decide whether a futures contract may run for ever. It is suing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and its chairman over the order that let a prediction market venue list the first perpetual future on a US-regulated exchange.
CME Group runs four derivatives exchanges, CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX, offering benchmark contracts across interest rates, equity indices, foreign exchange and agricultural, energy and metals commodities, plus cash and repo fixed income through BrokerTec and spot and over-the-counter foreign exchange through EBS, and it operates one of the largest central counterparty clearing houses. Its own annual report for the year to 31 December 2025 names the E-mini S&P 500, E-mini Nasdaq 100 and E-mini Russell 2000 among its equity index products, gold, copper and silver among its metals, and Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and XRP among its crypto products, and records a record average daily volume of 28.1m contracts in 2025. The same report says the group has extended trading to twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week for certain event contracts and will begin round-the-clock trading for its entire crypto suite in the second quarter of 2026, so the incumbent is moving towards continuous markets while arguing in court that a continuous contract is not a future. It is incorporated in Delaware with offices at 20 South Wacker Drive, Chicago; EDGAR records it as formerly Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc through 13 July 2007 and assigns its filings to the Division of Corporation Finance's Office of Crypto Assets. Its suit, Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. v. Selig, 1:26-cv-02157 in the District of Columbia, is before Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, and on 13 August the defendants' response to the complaint was extended to 2 September 2026.
Developments in which CME Group is a named party, newest first.
A former Solicitor General, acting for Hyperliquid Policy Center, told the district court in Washington that CME cannot claim competitor injury from an order which enlarged the market rather than dividing it, and that an interest in burdening rivals…
Moving to dismiss the exchange's suit over Kalshi's bitcoin perpetuals, the Commission quotes CME's own earnings call and its own monthly volume files back at it, and argues that one board of trade has no standing to litigate how a rival's contract…
Kalshi submitted two never-expiring futures for the Commission's approval on 18 August rather than certifying them itself: one on a 500-stock US index, one on copper.
Elizabeth Prelogar, Solicitor General from 2021 to 2025, filed for Hyperliquid Policy Center in Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. v. Selig, arguing that the CFTC order enlarged the market rather than dividing it, so competitor standing does not follow, and that CME's interest in reclassifying perpetuals as swaps is outside the zone of interests. Leave was granted the same day.
The Commission and its chairman moved on 2 September 2026 to dismiss CME Group's challenge to the approval of Kalshi's bitcoin perpetual futures, arguing the exchange has no standing because it is free to list the same contract and has told investors its customers are not asking for one. Cross-motions for summary judgment are proposed for 20 November.
Kalshi submitted perpetual futures on the MerQube US Large Cap Index and on copper for Commission review and approval under regulation 40.3(a) on 18 August 2026, rather than self-certifying them. The copper contract references the Pyth Network XCU/USD feed, and the filing tells the regulator that the network's staking and slashing safeguard is not currently operative.
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