SEC And CFTC Ask Public To Weigh In On Swaps As Perpetual Futures Fight Heats Up

The US derivatives debate just moved into a much more important phase.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have opened a joint request for public comment on whether existing derivatives definitions still fit the products now coming to market. The request focuses on areas including swaps, security-based swaps, mixed swaps, novel products, emerging products, and alternative compliance.

That sounds technical, but the timing matters. The request arrived as the market is also watching a legal fight over perpetual futures, including whether products approved for event-contract platforms should be treated as futures or swaps under the Dodd-Frank framework. For crypto traders, the core issue is simple: the label regulators choose can determine who gets to offer a product, what safeguards apply, and how much access retail and institutional users have.

Crypto markets have always borrowed heavily from derivatives. Perpetual futures, funding rates, collateralized positions, and synthetic exposure are central to trading activity offshore. The US market, by contrast, has been slower and more fragmented because regulatory categories decide what venues can list, clear, and supervise each product.

The SEC and CFTC said their request is part of a wider effort to evaluate whether current jurisdictional frameworks reflect evolving market structures and trading practices. That phrasing is important because it does not name crypto as the only issue. Instead, the agencies are looking at the broader architecture around products that may not fit neatly into old definitions.

Still, crypto is clearly one of the markets most exposed to the outcome. If a perpetual contract is treated as a swap, it may face a different rulebook from a futures contract. That can change clearing obligations, venue rules, reporting requirements, and the practical economics of offering the product in the US.

The policy discussion is not happening in a vacuum. CME Group has filed a lawsuit challenging the CFTC’s approval of perpetual futures contracts for event-contract platforms, including Kalshi and Coinbase. According to the legal context reviewed for this article, CME argues that contracts without an expiration date and with periodic funding mechanics should be viewed as swaps rather than ordinary futures.

That argument goes straight to the commercial heart of the market. Established derivatives venues do not want new entrants offering economically similar products under a lighter framework. Newer platforms, meanwhile, are pushing for a regulatory path that lets them compete with offshore crypto exchanges and prediction-market-style venues.

The SEC and CFTC did not frame their joint request as a direct answer to CME’s lawsuit. But the overlap is hard to ignore. Both developments point to the same question: how should regulators treat modern derivatives that blur the line between futures, swaps, event contracts, and crypto-native perpetuals?

The agencies are asking the public to submit feedback for 60 days following publication of the request in the Federal Register. That process will give exchanges, trading firms, crypto companies, legal experts, and investor-protection groups a chance to shape the next round of regulatory interpretation.

For crypto, the stakes are bigger than one lawsuit or one product approval. If the US can build a clearer derivatives framework, more activity may move onshore and into regulated venues. If the rules remain unclear, platforms may keep facing a patchwork of approvals, objections, and court challenges.

The near-term takeaway is that the SEC and CFTC are not just reacting to one product category. They are reopening the map for how emerging derivatives should be classified. For a market that depends heavily on leverage and synthetic exposure, that is a discussion worth watching closely.