U.S. CFTC Chair Clarifies Perpetual Contract Dispute: No Fixed Expiration Date Does Not Affect Futures Nature; the Funding Rate Mechanism Helps Anchor Prices

Deep Tide TechFlow News, June 16 — Chairman Mike Selig of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) posted on the X platform to clarify and address market misconceptions about perpetual futures contracts, and responded to recent controversies surrounding CFTC approval of related contracts.

Mike Selig stated that the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations do not explicitly specify that "futures contracts" must have fixed expiration or delivery dates. Since Congress has not clearly defined this term, the classification of futures contracts mainly relies on judicial rulings and CFTC interpretations, and having a fixed expiration date is not a necessary condition.

Regarding the claim that "CFTC-approved BTCPERP contracts allow U.S. users to use 250x leverage," high leverage is not an inherent feature of the perpetual contract structure itself, but rather a characteristic of previous offshore trading platforms. Perpetual contracts regulated by the CFTC will adhere to the same leverage limits as other regulated futures products.

In response to the question of "CFTC not providing industry participants with opportunities for feedback," the CFTC publicly solicited comments on "perpetual contracts" and "24/7 trading" in April 2025, receiving over 100 submissions from industry participants, including multiple CFTC-registered entities. Additionally, regarding concerns that the funding rate mechanism could lead to high costs and encourage market misconduct, considering the costs associated with opening and rolling traditional futures contracts, the annualized holding cost of perpetual contract funding rates is roughly comparable to that of traditional futures. The funding rate mechanism actually helps maintain the contract price anchored to the spot market and plays a market-stabilizing role.