Investors tracking derivatives markets learned on 22 June 2026 that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has launched a public consultation on energy perpetual futures, asking whether the contract structure it approved for bitcoin just weeks earlier can also work for crude oil. The answer, implicit in the regulator’s own 22-page document, is that nobody is sure yet.
How Perpetual Futures Work, and Why Bitcoin Got Approved First
A perpetual futures contract (a derivative with no expiry date that tracks an underlying price through periodic funding payments between buyers and sellers) has been a fixture of offshore crypto trading for years. On 29 May 2026, the CFTC approved the first regulated version in the United States: the KalshiEX BTCPERP contract, a cash-settled derivative referencing the CF Benchmarks Bitcoin Real Time Index (BRTI), which produces a continuous, observable bitcoin price from live transactions across major crypto platforms. Kraken then launched its own CFTC-regulated perps on 15 June.
The BRTI’s around-the-clock availability was central to the approval. Without a reliable reference price at every moment, the funding mechanism that anchors the contract price to the underlying asset breaks down. The CFTC’s approval order itself acknowledged that ‘the perpetual contract design may not be suitable for all asset classes.’
Why CFTC Energy Perpetual Futures Face a Different Problem
Crude oil has no equivalent of the BRTI. The physical markets for WTI and Brent operate within defined trading windows; prices are assessed rather than continuously traded. On a Saturday, there is no observable cash price to anchor a funding rate. The CFTC’s 67-question request for comment (RFC) asks what happens to that mechanism when the reference market is closed, who processes a margin call at the weekend when Fedwire is not running, and whether a weekend price move in a perpetual could feed back into the benchmark prices that commercial oil hedgers rely on come Monday morning.
The document also revisits the April 2020 episode when WTI settled at negative $37.63 per barrel. A standard futures contract absorbed that shock through expiration: the chaos was contained to a single delivery month. A perpetual has no expiry date, so the RFC asks directly what a no-expiry contract does when the price goes negative and stays there.
The RFC is also part of a broader push toward round-the-clock markets. CME Group switched on 24/7 trading for its crypto futures at the end of May; LMAX added gold to its perpetual futures lineup with continuous XAU/USD trading in February.
One practical question the CFTC raises concerns collateral. On the same day it approved the BTCPERP, the regulator issued a no-action letter allowing a Coinbase affiliate to post customer-owned digital commodities and payment stablecoins as margin for foreign futures positions on Deribit, subject to specified conditions. The energy RFC now asks whether tokenised assets or stablecoins might similarly need to serve as collateral during weekend trading in energy perps, when traditional payment rails are unavailable.
Separately, on 12 June 2026, Bitnomial Exchange filed a no-action request with the CFTC, seeking confirmation it could convert its existing digital commodity futures into perpetual-style contracts, a sign that other venues are already moving to adopt the new framework.
The Legal Fight Already Under Way
The CFTC’s push into perpetuals is not unopposed. CME Group has filed a lawsuit against the regulator in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, arguing the agency ‘overrode Congress’s definition of the term swap’ when it approved the KalshiEX bitcoin perpetual. CME Group CEO Terrence Duffy disclosed the action and said the firm had spent eight months preparing the legal challenge with its board. The suit also targets the Coinbase/Deribit no-action letter.
The argument matters because swaps under Dodd-Frank carry heavier regulatory requirements than futures. If a court agrees with CME, the entire perpetuals approval framework would need to be rebuilt. On the same day CME filed its lawsuit, the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) jointly published a request for comment on updating the definitions of swaps and novel products including perpetual contracts under Title VII of Dodd-Frank, acknowledging that the question CME is litigating remains genuinely open.
CFTC Chairman Mike Selig framed the regulator’s approach as supporting ‘responsible innovation, while preserving the protections against manipulation and market disruption that participants and the public rely on.’
What UK Investors Should Watch
For UK retail investors, the immediate read-across is to energy-exposed holdings rather than any direct access to US perpetual contracts. If energy perps eventually go live in the US, they will add a new class of around-the-clock speculative activity to oil markets, which could affect intraday volatility in WTI and Brent prices that already underpin the earnings of BP, Shell, and the broader commodity funds in many SIPP and ISA portfolios.
The public comment window closes approximately 30 days after the RFC is published in the Federal Register. CME’s lawsuit means a court, not just the CFTC, may end up drawing the line on where perpetuals can go next.
