About Terrence Duffy
Terrence Duffy, Chairman and CEO of CME Group, has been publicly critical of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regarding its approval of perpetual futures contracts. In June 2026, Duffy stated that CME Group plans to sue the CFTC over the matter, arguing that under the Dodd-Frank Act, perpetuals are swaps, not futures, and that the CFTC has misrepresented facts about the rules. He described perpetuals as "not a credible product" and a "leveraged product" that "incite[s] bad behavior" due to their funding rate mechanism, and he compared the situation to "2007 for retail." Duffy also said he is "always up for a good battle" and that the lawsuit is about "stating the law," not a personal fight.
Separately, Duffy has overseen the launch of new products and initiatives at CME Group. In May 2026, he announced a partnership to create a futures market for computing power, calling it a unique product with no close precedent. During earnings calls, Duffy highlighted record revenue and volume in the first quarter of 2026, citing "unprecedented engagement" across asset classes and the growing need for risk management amid high U.S. debt and geopolitical uncertainty. He also discussed plans to launch 24/7 trading of cryptocurrency futures and options, a central limit order book for U.S. Treasuries, and a partnership with Google Cloud to develop tokenization technology, which he said could provide "upward of 80%" savings for clients.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Terrence Duffy's recent appearances.
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✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Unknown0:01
Not work for the true hedger that has a fiduciary legal obligation to the people whose money they are entrusted with.
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Melissa0:09
What do you want to accomplish with the lawsuit, Terry?
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Terrence Duffy0:14
Well, there's a couple of things. First of all, under the Dodd-Frank Act, and this will all be laid out in a lawsuit under the Dodd-Frank Act. It clearly defines what a swap is and what a future is. And when there's two parties exchanging payments to each other, that's deemed a swap. So if anything, these products that he supposedly approved as futures are not futures, they would be swaps. And if they are swaps, Melissa, as you know, there's different requirements in order to participate in swap market, such as five day margin, such as swap requirements for the users register as swap dealers. There's a lot that goes into the Dodd-Frank legislation. So the case law, as I stated, was pre Dodd-Frank. It had nothing to do. So he circumvented Dodd-Frank Act.
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Melissa1:00
So basically, if it plays out in your favor, Terry, it sounds like how she would in other prediction markets would not be able to offer these products unless they became swap dealers themselves.
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Terrence Duffy1:14
Correct. They would have to list them as swaps, if that's the way that it came out. I still believe that he is in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act, but again, my suit will be based around the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, not the Commodity Exchange Act of 2000.
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Guy1:31
So, Terry, I get calls, I get Twitter, this perp thing scared Terry. He's going to retire because of it. And my response to them is, my instincts suggest that this was planned in the fall of last year. That's probably when you started talking about this. Lynn's been there since 2006. So speak to the genesis of this and sort of quell any concerns.
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Terrence Duffy1:52
You know, Guy, thank you for that. And I almost backed out of putting this release out this morning when I did hear some after I heard those calls. Because if you know me, I'm always up for a good battle. I've never shied away from one, and I won't shy away from this. I've been working on this plan with my board for eight months. I didn't start working on it two weeks ago Friday, when there was a quick approval of a perpetual future. So this takes a lot of time, a lot of fiduciary. This is the biggest obligation of any public company board, and my board took it very seriously. Lynn Fitzpatrick is going to be a dynamite CEO here at CME Group, and I will help transition her over the next year and a half as I'll be here. But to say that I would I'm concerned about what's going on right now is laughable at best. And I think anybody who knows me knows that I do not back away from anything. So I'm prepared and I will be prepared to go through this. And that's why I wanted to announce on your show that we will be filing this litigation tomorrow, because we are not taking this lightly. I'm not trying to pick a fight with anybody. I'm just trying to state the law. So it's not personal, just trying to state the law. Melissa asked me the question, would I list this? I need to understand what the rules of the road are first before I list anything, and I don't think the rules of the road are very clear. There's a lot of, I would say, misrepresentation of certain facts.
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Melissa3:21
Do you think the CFTC is misrepresenting certain facts?
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Terrence Duffy3:26
I do, Melissa, to an extent. They said on your show last week that they created a rule around 24 over seven. They did not create a rule around 24 over seven. There's a handful of things that the chairman has said in his own words that are just not true. He said that as it relates to how the Commodity Exchange Act defines a futures contract, there are a lot of things that are. And he also suggested, as I said earlier, that there's case law to suggest...
