US Court Denies Request for Temporary Restraining Order to Pause Single-Stock Perpetual Contracts

Nov. 5 — According to documents from the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Valerie Caproni denied a request for a temporary restraining order filed by industry group Capital Markets Alliance (whose members include Cboe, Citadel Securities and others). The request sought to pause the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) approval for Kalshi, Bitnomial and Coinbase Derivatives to launch US single-stock perpetual contracts. The court found that the plaintiffs failed to show their members would suffer imminent irreparable harm, but also found that the plaintiffs' claim that the CFTC overstepped its authority is likely to succeed on the merits, saying the contracts in question appear not to meet the definition of "security futures" and are closer to swaps regulated by the SEC. The CFTC must respond to the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction by Nov. 6, and the plaintiffs must reply by Nov. 10.