Former SEC and CFTC officials call for regulatory easing to attract the return of crypto perpetual contracts

As the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) accelerate their rule-making efforts for the $2.5 trillion industry amid a legislative stalemate on cryptocurrency market structure during the summer recess, both agencies are advancing multiple crypto-related initiatives. These include re-evaluating the definitions of derivatives such as swaps and perpetual contracts, as well as rewriting the SEC's crypto custody rules.

A bipartisan group composed of former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo, former CFTC Commissioners Brian Quintenz and Sharon Brown-Hruska, former SEC Commissioner Steven Wallman, and former SEC Chief Economist Chester Spatt stated in a comment letter sponsored by Kalshi that similar risks should receive similar regulatory treatment, and overlapping rules should not impose additional compliance costs. Giancarlo noted that if federal regulation is calibrated based on actual risks rather than maximum burdens, liquidity will flow back to the U.S., and the longer we wait, the harder it will be to attract that liquidity back.

Kalshi estimates that offshore perpetual contract trading volume will exceed $90 trillion by 2025, up from about $28 trillion two years ago. Additionally, the SEC last week submitted its plan to rewrite the custody rules for investment advisers and investment companies to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for review, and its "Reg Crypto" proposal has officially entered the Federal Register, with a public comment period ending on October 20.