CFTC Chair Michael Selig Defends Approval of Perpetual Futures, Dismisses Political Pressure Claims

Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Michael Selig publicly defended his agency's decision to allow perpetual futures contracts in the United States, pushing back on critics who have questioned both the wisdom and the independence of the regulatory move.

Speaking Monday on CNBC's "Fast Money," Selig argued that keeping so-called "perps" — futures contracts with no expiration date — out of the domestic market would only cede ground to overseas platforms operating under less stringent oversight.

"It's time to approve regulated futures contracts that have no expiration date," Selig said. "We're going to make sure the product's available, but it's well regulated here in the U.S."

Perpetual futures allow traders to speculate on an asset's price without owning the underlying asset, and they carry no settlement date. Popular on international cryptocurrency exchanges for years, the contracts had not previously been permitted for trading in the U.S.

In late May, the CFTC approved prediction market platform Kalshi to begin offering bitcoin perpetual futures. Kalshi has since expanded its perps offerings to other cryptocurrencies, and the company said at a Thursday event that its contracts had recorded more than $3 billion in notional volume during just over a week of beta testing.

The approval drew swift criticism from established exchange operators. CME Group CEO Terrence Duffy blasted the decision in a prior "Fast Money" appearance, citing concerns about the high leverage embedded in the contracts.

Selig rejected that framing Monday, arguing that complexity alone is not a sufficient reason to restrict a financial product.

"The notion that we should be paternalistic and allow for one type of product, because it's easier to understand, I think that's frankly a misunderstanding itself, because, of course, options are very complicated," he said. "We're going to make sure there's proper disclosure. And to the extent that there's questions around suitability, of course, the brokers have to make those calls and make sure that they're evaluating the customers that are trading in their markets."

Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour addressed the leverage concerns in a separate "Fast Money" appearance last week, noting that the maximum leverage the company permits on its perps — roughly six times — is lower than the leverage CME offers on some of its own futures products.

Selig also confronted questions about whether the CFTC's decision was influenced by political pressure from the Trump administration. Donald Trump Jr., son of President Donald Trump, serves as a strategic advisor to Kalshi.

Selig was direct in his denial. "That's absolutely absurd, that insinuation," he said.

The CFTC chair framed the broader regulatory philosophy as one of onshoring, arguing that products being developed and traded internationally should be brought under a domestic regulatory framework rather than left to develop without U.S. oversight.

With Kalshi's early volume figures drawing attention across the derivatives industry, other platforms and exchanges are likely to weigh whether to pursue their own perps offerings — a dynamic that could deepen the tension between the CFTC and incumbent exchange operators in the months ahead.

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