cftc

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is once again investigating the prediction market platform Polymarket to determine whether it has violated the 2022 settlement agreement, focusing on whether it has taken adequate measures to prevent U.S. users from accessing the main overseas platform. This review is part of a broader investigation initiated by the CFTC earlier this year, involving user geographic location identification mechanisms, advertising activities in the U.S. market, as well as the customer account opening processes and protective measures of U.S. platforms.According to the 2022 settlement agreement, Polymarket agreed to cease providing services to U.S. users. In 2024, the CFTC and the U.S. Department of Justice conducted investigations, which concluded in 2025 without any charges being filed; thereafter, Polymarket gradually returned to the U.S. market through the acquisition of a licensed derivatives exchange. Polymarket previously stated that it has strengthened geographic restrictions, prohibiting circumvention through methods such as VPNs, and established monitoring mechanisms. There is currently no information indicating that the CFTC has filed formal charges regarding this investigation.

Crypto.com and its derivatives partner OG.com began offering crypto perpetual contracts to eligible U.S. traders on Tuesday. The contract offers up to 5x leverage, allowing traders to bet on the price movements of crypto assets without an expiration date, and provides take-profit and stop-loss orders as well as isolated margin features.Crypto.com stated that it has recently registered as an introducing broker with the National Futures Association in the U.S. to offer the aforementioned perpetual contract products. These products operate through OG.com on exchanges, clearinghouses, and futures commission merchants regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. This launch follows the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's decision in May to open the U.S. market to crypto perpetual contracts.Previously, the agency approved Kalshi's Bitcoin perpetual contracts and provided Coinbase with no-action relief to offer digital commodity derivatives; Kraken launched U.S. perpetual contracts on Kraken Pro in June after acquiring Bitnomial. Crypto.com is also advancing its stock derivatives business, with OG.com’s exchange Nadex registering last month with the Securities and Exchange Commission to trade securities futures. CEO Kris Marszalek stated at that time that the company is working with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to offer individual stock perpetual futures.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is working to increase the frequency of the highly anticipated Commitments of Traders (COT) report to twice a week by the end of this year. The report is currently released every Friday and provides a detailed overview of buying and selling in the commodity markets, distinguishing between hedge funds and other asset management firms and commercial trading participants.Producers rely on this report to assist in making hedging decisions, while speculative traders observe market position changes through the data and whether related bets have become overly concentrated. CFTC Chairman Michael Selig stated last week at the agricultural commodity futures conference in Kansas that the plan to increase the report's release frequency stems from demand in the agricultural sector.

According to NPR, the prediction market platform Polymarket has launched an investigation into dozens of bets related to the U.S. midterm elections on November 3, focusing on potential insider trading and market manipulation. Sources say that at least two cases have been submitted to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).Shana Bautista, Polymarket's Global Intelligence and Investigations Director, stated that the company has formed a 16-person team and deployed a new election trading monitoring system that generates hundreds of risk alerts daily. The monitoring scope includes U.S. compliant platforms that require identity verification, as well as international platforms that allow anonymous cryptocurrency trading.The system integrates analysis of social media, data from the U.S. Federal Election Commission (FEC), cryptocurrency trading records, information from banking partners, and statistical models to identify abnormal accounts and trading patterns.

The cryptocurrency trading platform Kraken's parent company Payward announced its intention to become the first CFTC-regulated deployer on the HIP-3* market of the on-chain perpetual contract infrastructure Hyperliquid. Payward will deploy a perpetual futures market for U.S. customers based on Hyperliquid as the infrastructure layer.Upon obtaining regulatory approval, Payward's designated contract market and derivatives clearing organization Bitnomial, which is regulated by the CFTC, will act as the HIP-3* deployer, responsible for creating, holding, and managing the relevant market, as well as completing contract clearing and settlement. If approved, Payward's CFTC-registered futures commission merchant NinjaTrader Clearing will take over customer accounts.Hyperliquid stated that HIP-3 will support optional deployer configurations for licensed markets in future network upgrades, with the new features collectively referred to as HIP-3*. At its core is an on-chain whitelist managed by the deployer or its sub-deployers, which is an incremental option for HIP-3, with the decision to enable it made by the deployer, while existing markets remain unchanged. The initial version has been launched on the test network, and the specifications are still preliminary and may be adjusted based on feedback. Hyperliquid stated that HIP-3* deployers are independently operated entities that use their on-chain infrastructure to operate their own markets and retain control and responsibility over the deployment.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced a memorandum of understanding with the NBA to jointly maintain the integrity of professional basketball events in prediction markets. According to the agreement, both parties will share information, maintain regular communication on integrity matters, and collaborate to ensure that relevant markets are fair and transparent. CFTC Chairman Michael Selig stated that the NBA, along with MLB and NHL, has taken a responsible step to protect sports integrity and market participants from abuses such as insider trading and fraud, and thanked NBA President Adam Silver for prioritizing the integrity of professional basketball and the U.S. financial markets.The agreement reflects that betting on sports event outcomes is rapidly migrating to CFTC-regulated platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket, where users can trade event contracts based on real-world outcomes. Such memorandums of understanding with regulatory agencies aim to establish channels for marking suspicious activities. Previously, the NHL became the first major league to authorize trademarks for prediction markets, while MLB signed an integrity agreement after collaborating with Polymarket. The NBA's involvement is particularly noteworthy, as the league is still affected by one of the largest betting scandals in recent years: in October 2025, an FBI operation arrested Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and a coach, accusing them of participating in a gambling scheme to manipulate game outcomes to influence betting.This collaboration comes amid a jurisdictional dispute over prediction markets. The CFTC recently defined event contracts as swaps within its jurisdiction and excluded casino-style gambling; the lawsuit between the NFL and Kalshi has drawn the attention of the Supreme Court, with the NFL to date refusing to sign related agreements, contrasting with its cooperation with the NBA. Bernstein analysts expect that by the end of this decade, prediction markets could generate billions of dollars in revenue, with new participants continuously entering, and Blockchain.com is one of the latest seeking CFTC approval to offer event contracts.

Mike Selig, Chairman of the CFTC, stated that the crypto market should enjoy the same protections as the mature protective mechanisms adopted by the U.S. derivatives market for decades.While Congress has yet to take action, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is advancing a voluntary federal registration mechanism for crypto trading platforms, bringing its regulatory standards closer to the high regulatory standards of the U.S. financial market.

a16z recently submitted a public comment letter to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in response to the CFTC's request for comments on the listing of computing power derivative contracts, expressing support for establishing a regulated computing power derivatives market in the United States. The related derivatives would help AI startups and cloud service providers hedge against computing power price, utilization, and duration risks, and reduce the financing costs of AI infrastructure.a16z stated that the CFTC does not need new statutory authority, as the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA), Part 38 core principles, and Part 40 self-certification process are sufficient, and no new rules are needed prior to listing. The letter suggested that the CFTC rely on the existing regulatory framework to support the adoption of computing power price benchmarks that comply with the principles of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), and allow exchanges to launch cash-settled computing power futures, including fixed-term futures and perpetual contracts.a16z crypto is an investor in Ornn, and ICE announced in May plans to launch GPU computing power futures based on the Ornn Computing Power Price Index (OCPI).

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) reported that as of the week ending October 20, the net long positions of CME S&P 500 index futures by stock fund managers decreased by 18,079 contracts, to 894,464 contracts.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) reported that for the week ending October 20, net short positions of speculators in CME S&P 500 index futures decreased by 42,221 contracts, to 348,674 contracts.

According to the New York Post, citing informed sources, Matthew Modabber, who has served as the Chief Marketing Officer of the prediction market platform Polymarket since January 2024, has been fired. Previously, the company conducted an internal investigation into a series of events that raised public concern and worried investors.One of the issues involved Modabber's team being accused of creating fake webpages to promote staged videos, which showed users profiting from fake trades. This situation was exposed in a June report by the Wall Street Journal, which subsequently triggered an investigation by the U.S. CFTC. The investigation is still ongoing, and no violations have been determined yet.Informed sources stated that Modabber was a confidant of 28-year-old CEO Shayne Coplan, and during his tenure as an executive, he often made impulsive decisions that led the company into a public relations crisis. Polymarket is finalizing Modabber's departure agreement, and both parties are maintaining mutual respect during the process.

According to Bloomberg, the Commodity Markets Council, representing derivatives exchanges such as the CME Group and commodity traders, has informed the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) that perpetual futures pose a significant risk to market integrity and urged regulators not to approve the perpetual oil futures contract proposed by the prediction market platform Kalshi.The organization also called on the CFTC to close regulatory loopholes to prevent retail investors from accessing offshore trading platforms.

David Hoffman, the founder of Bankless, retweeted the compliance updates of the perpetual contract trading platform Lighter on X, stating, "Lighter's big market is back." During the Lighter third-quarter investor conference call the previous night, Hoffman, as an investor, asked whether, given that Lighter has had extensive prior communication with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the approval for the Designated Contract Market (DCM) and Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO) licenses is expected to be granted earlier than the stipulated 180-day review period.Lighter's founder and CEO Vladimir Novakovski responded that extensive prior communication would make the process much smoother. He stated that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission currently has a lot on its plate, so he could not provide a specific timeline, but internally there is a fast-acting team, and the approval process is expected to go relatively smoothly. Previously, Hoffman had liquidated his ETH holdings and shifted to tokens like LIT, ZEC, and NEAR, which have all significantly outperformed ETH since then.

According to Crypto Briefing, the decentralized perpetual contract trading platform Lighter stated during its Q3 investor call that it plans to submit a derivative brand license application to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in November 2026, aiming to become the first on-chain perpetual contract DEX approved by the CFTC. Founder Vladimir Novakovski mentioned that the team has been in communication with regulators for about 11 months.Currently, Lighter has integrated with Robinhood Chain to provide perpetual contract trading, and the number of Lighter Core accounts has exceeded 1 million. OKX market data shows that LIT has risen 22.26% in the past 24 hours, currently priced at $3.89.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has announced the agenda for its inaugural "Frontier Forum." The forum, hosted by the CFTC Innovation Working Group, is scheduled for October 28 and will invite leaders in the field of artificial intelligence to discuss how AI may change the operation of the U.S. derivatives market.CFTC Chairman Mike Selig stated in a statement that super intelligence will transform our financial markets. This forum will focus on how the derivatives market can respond to the influx of machine intelligence and the potential impact of this technology on price discovery and risk management. The forum agenda adopts the term "super intelligence," preferred by U.S. President Trump.The Innovation Working Group indicated that the event will hear insights from leaders of companies such as Ornn, Architect, and Liquid Compute. Additionally, the forum will explore how traders' own AI agents might operate under the CFTC regulatory framework. This is the first event in the "Frontier Forum" series launched by the CFTC Innovation Working Group.

Bitcoin News posted on platform X, stating that as the Clarity Act is stalled, regulators are independently formulating rules for the digital asset market based on existing authorities. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has solicited opinions on a framework for retail digital asset trading, which includes a new category of "crypto asset market" exchanges, with the comment period ending on December 14.The comment period for the Securities and Exchange Commission's proposed Regulation Crypto Assets will close on October 20. The pace at which regulators are crafting rules is faster than congressional legislation, but the relevant rules may face challenges in court or be rescinded by future commissions; a lasting regulatory framework still requires legislation.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) stated in its latest court filing that CME only claims increased competition without reasonably explaining the existence of imminent financial harm, which is insufficient to qualify for a lawsuit challenging its perpetual contract policy. The CFTC pointed out that after the policy adjustment, CME's cryptocurrency futures trading volume has actually increased.In May of this year, the CFTC approved Kalshi's first Bitcoin perpetual contract and stated that it would regulate such products on a case-by-case basis under futures regulations. CME, on the other hand, believes that perpetual contracts do not have an expiration date and should be classified as swaps rather than futures, subject to a different regulatory framework. Last month, the CFTC requested a federal judge to dismiss the case, and this filing further elaborated on its rebuttal to CME's standing in the lawsuit.The CFTC also noted that CME had previously informed investors that it had not heard customer demand for perpetual contracts, and that such products could not replace its existing futures, and that it should not take different positions in court and during earnings calls. TD Cowen policy analyst Jaret Seiberg believes that CME may still have the upper hand regarding its standing in the lawsuit and the argument that the products should be classified as swaps. However, he is concerned that if the perpetual contract market continues to grow during the litigation, it may become more complicated to dismantle this market if CME wins.

Michael Passalacqua, Senior Advisor to the Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Head of the Innovation Working Group, introduced that after the Clarity Act was stalled, the CFTC is advancing Reg CAM, the "Crypto Asset Market" framework, which aims to provide a voluntary path for cryptocurrency trading platforms to come under the CFTC's nationwide unified regulation.This arrangement is primarily aimed at platforms that offer leveraged, margin, or financing trading to retail customers, allowing them to escape the patchwork of state money transmission licensing regulations; pure spot trading without leverage generally remains outside this mandatory framework. Passalacqua stated that the relevant rulemaking is currently in the public comment phase, and there is still no conclusion on whether the industry finds this proposal attractive.

According to Cointelegraph, a recent poll conducted by Reuters/Ipsos shows that a majority of American respondents oppose betting on U.S. elections and other government actions through prediction markets. The survey indicates that 69% of Democratic respondents and 61% of Republican respondents oppose using prediction markets to bet on election outcomes. The survey was conducted from September 30 to October 5, covering 4,506 adults nationwide.Aside from elections, even regarding betting on professional sports events, 43% of respondents expressed opposition, while only 29% indicated support. The prediction market industry is currently dominated by platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi, which allow users to bet on U.S. elections, government policy trends, and sports events, and has sparked multiple lawsuits regarding regulatory authority.The Trump administration is pushing for federal regulation of the industry through the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), while several states have expressed opposition to this. Previously, on October 8, Cointelegraph reported that 39 states and the District of Columbia submitted an amicus brief, indicating that the conflict between the CFTC and state authorities over prediction market issues has created a "national turf war" that cannot be resolved without a Supreme Court ruling.