CFTC Opens Equity Perps Trading and Gets Sued Hours Later

The CFTC approved equity perpetual futures trading under a 2000 law establishing a joint commodity-securities framework, and was sued within hours of the decision. The approval lets perps on equities trade under the agency's oversight, expanding its derivatives remit into products that straddle commodity and securities regulation. The lawsuit, whose plaintiff and specific claims were not detailed, challenges that legal basis and threatens to delay or unwind the newly opened market. The dispute matters because it tests how far the CFTC can extend its jurisdiction using a decades-old statutory workaround rather than new rulemaking. What to watch next is whether the court grants relief that pauses equity perps trading, and whether the CFTC issues further guidance clarifying which contracts qualify.