Michael Selig, chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), said the agency is preparing to address perpetual futures contracts for cryptocurrencies and expects to enable “true perpetual futures” in the United States “within the next month or so.” He made the remarks during a Tuesday panel hosted by the Milken Institute in Washington, D.C., where he spoke alongside SEC Chair Paul Atkins.
Selig, currently the only Senate-confirmed CFTC commissioner, noted there has been no sign that the White House will nominate additional commissioners to fill the agency’s four vacancies. He said the previous administration’s approach had driven many trading firms and liquidity offshore.
The CFTC chair also said the agency will soon issue guidance on prediction markets. In February Selig asserted the CFTC has “exclusive jurisdiction” over platforms offering event contracts, countering several state enforcement actions against firms such as Kalshi and Polymarket.
Atkins addressed a separate but related topic: a congressional market structure bill affecting digital assets that has stalled amid debates over ethics, stablecoin yields and tokenized equities. Atkins said the SEC needs a clear statutory direction from Congress to guide courts and bolster the commission’s crypto enforcement and regulatory actions. Selig agreed, noting there is only so much regulators can do without legal certainty from lawmakers.
As of the panel, the Senate Banking Committee had not scheduled a markup on the market structure legislation. Meanwhile, the White House recently continued discussions with industry leaders about stablecoin yield, though it remained unclear whether those talks would lead to legislative progress.
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