Michael Selig said the U.S. derivatives regulator is also studying regulated stablecoins as collateral as trading shifts toward always-on, algorithm-driven markets.
CFTC (U.S. derivatives regulator) Chairman Michael Selig said the agency has approved the first "true" Bitcoin perpetual contract as a futures product, marking a notable step in bringing a crypto-native trading instrument into the U.S. regulated derivatives framework. Writing in The Economist, Selig said the global derivatives market now exceeds $1,200 trillion in notional value and that nearly half falls under the CFTC's remit. He argued that as automated trading, artificial intelligence, algorithmic execution and real-time decision-making spread, the United States should not import a regulatory model built for limited trading hours, single-venue markets and traditional screen-based trading. Selig added that the CFTC is examining whether regulated stablecoins can be used as collateral and said the U.S. this year also saw the launch of the first major exchange offering round-the-clock gold futures trading. Beyond crypto, the agency is discussing the potential development of perpetual futures for non-crypto assets. He also said prediction markets are under the CFTC's exclusive jurisdiction and have value for information aggregation, forecasting and price discovery. Responding to calls from nine European financial regulators to treat prediction market event contracts as gambling, Selig said that view misunderstands how the contracts are structured and overlooks their role in forecasting economic indicators and elections. He said cross-border regulatory cooperation still matters, but international agreements and regulatory arrangements should keep evolving with market structure and technology. In his view, the United States should keep setting global standards by encouraging innovation while protecting market integrity, rather than waiting for broad international consensus.