Kalshi asks the CFTC for perpetuals, and names a DAO as price source
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.
Exchange
CME Group
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.
The profile
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.
Products and services
- E-mini S&P 500
- The dated quarterly equity index future that is the reference point for any continuous contract on a broad US large-cap benchmark. A holder must roll from one listed month to the next every quarter, which is the cost a perpetual contract is pitched as removing.
- COMEX Copper
- The enumerated core referenced futures contract for copper, which carries a federal spot-month speculative position limit under part 150 of the Commission's regulations. Kalshi's copper perpetual adopts that same limit, on the reasoning that the physical squeeze risk the federal regime addresses applies to it too.
- Crypto suite
- Cash-settled futures and options on Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and XRP, which the group's 2025 annual report says will move to trading twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week during the second quarter of 2026 so that clients can hedge the underlying cash markets over the weekend.
Coverage
Developments in which CME Group is a named party, newest first.
On the record
Kalshi asks the CFTC to approve equity index and copper perpetuals
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.