CMC Urges CFTC to Reject Kalshi Oil Perpetuals

| crypto.news
The Commodity Markets Council (CMC), whose members include CME Group, NYMEX and ICE Futures U.S., has urged the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to reject Kalshi’s proposed WTI crude oil perpetual futures contract, citing risks to market integrity. Kalshi filed for the WTIPERP contract on October 20, 2026; the CFTC’s initial review period is 45 days and may be extended to 90 days. The contract has not been approved. Unlike monthly WTI futures, the proposed cash-settled product would offer continuous oil-price exposure. Each contract represents 100 barrels and uses daily funding payments to track a reference price based on nearby NYMEX crude futures. Kalshi already offers a long-dated WTI contract with weekday trading and reportedly about $57 million in daily volume and leverage of up to 5.9x. The CMC has also called for regulators to work with foreign authorities to curb US retail traders’ access to offshore derivatives platforms through VPNs. The CFTC review could affect competition and access in oil derivatives, with potential implications for liquidity and volatility in those markets. Kalshi is also expanding perpetual products linked to BTC, ETH, XRP and HYPE, while facing separate state-level legal challenges over whether its event contracts are regulated derivatives or illegal gambling. Those cases concern prediction-market oversight, not the distinct CFTC review of Kalshi oil futures.
Neutral
The CMC’s objection and pending CFTC review concern Kalshi’s oil derivatives, not the fundamentals or regulation of BTC, ETH, XRP or HYPE themselves. The news therefore has no clear direct price catalyst for those cryptocurrencies, supporting a neutral classification. In the short term, traders may monitor Kalshi’s regulatory decisions for possible effects on the platform’s broader derivatives business and sentiment toward crypto-linked products. Over the longer term, the outcome could influence the regulatory boundaries for prediction markets and perpetual contracts, but any effect on the named tokens would be indirect and uncertain. Changes in liquidity, volatility or access in oil markets do not by themselves establish a bullish or bearish signal for these crypto assets.