Bankless - Perps Are Coming Onshore | CFTC Chairman Mike Selig

Episode Date: June 15, 2026

Perps are coming onshore. CFTC Chairman Mike Selig joins David to unpack the first U.S.-regulated Bitcoin perpetual futures contract, the end of regulation by enforcement, and what comes next for Coin...base, Kalshi, Kraken, Gemini, Hyperliquid, Lighter, and the broader U.S. perp market. They also discuss which assets could list next, how U.S. leverage will differ from offshore exchanges, and why equity perps, RWAs, and 24/7 trading may be the next frontier of American finance. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS  0:00 Intro 3:32 Self-Certified Crypto Contracts 7:08 Chasing the U.S. Perps Market 9:00 Bringing Liquidity Onshore 10:18 U.S. Market Guardrails 12:44 Blockchain Transparency Advantage 19:17 Hyperliquid and Onchain Perps 23:09 Real-World Asset Perps 24:38 Equity Perps & SEC 26:35 Incumbents Versus Disruptors 31:28 Derivatives Dominating Crypto 33:16 Perps Are Just Beginning --- RESOURCES  CFTC Chair Mike Selig https://x.com/ChairmanSelig --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 But we're excited to make sure that the new frontier finance is built here in the U.S. And that means new products, new services, new platforms. And we can't fear that. We have to embrace it and come up with a pathway for it. Because in my view, if we erect barriers, if we push this activity offshore, it will go offshore. And it's not going to benefit the American people because they're going to go use a VPN and access it anyway. And they have none of the protections. So if we can come up with a path for the United States, we'll do it.
Starting point is 00:00:28 And we're going to certainly work on it. Bankless Nation, I am once again joined by Mike Seelig. He is the CFTC chairman back on Bankless. Mike, great to have you. Glad to be here. Two weeks ago, the CFTC announced the order for approval to CalSheX for the listing of the BTC-P-PRP contract. This is a pretty big landmark for the perpetual as an instrument. It's also the first onshore U.S. Bitcoin perpetual futures contract from a CFTC registered exchange.
Starting point is 00:01:00 At the same time, the CFTC also gave Coinbase a new. no action letter, allowing them to pipe their customers to deribate in order to access futures, options, and perps on Coinbase access through Derbett. Pretty landmark approval. Mike, are we about to see more of these? Is the CFTC opening up the gate for onshore perps? What can we expect as an industry or people who are just interested in the perpetual future instrument?
Starting point is 00:01:26 Well, thanks for having me on this show. And, you know, this is really, as you say, a watershed mode. moment, a pivotal moment where we've turned the tide on the years of regulation by enforcement, a lack of clear rules, kind of this offshoring, pushing things out of the country. And we want it to be here in the United States. We want the industry to survive, to thrive, and to build here in the U.S. And part of that means having a futures market, having perpetual contracts that are tradable on U.S. exchanges under U.S. regulation on U.S. soil.
Starting point is 00:01:59 and not something that you have to go use a VPN to be able to figure out how to trade. So that starts with exchanges like Kalshi, exchanges like Coinbase, and there's a long list of others who will be launching the product soon. We started off with this initial order for a Bitcoin perpetual contract that was listed on Kalshys Exchange when we also approved the ability to access through Coinbass's broker offshore perpetual contracts. And all these are regulated products. And that's really the theme here.
Starting point is 00:02:29 This administration cares about regulation, but we also care about innovation. So we are opening the doors to new products. And we think this is the beginning. It's certainly not the end. There's many more crypto and other types of products that people want to offer here in the U.S. that for so long have existed only offshore.
Starting point is 00:02:47 So this is the beginning and not the end, for sure. The beginning and not the end. And I think that's why people in my night of the woods are just so excited. Perps as an instrument, as perps platforms incredibly successful as an adoption metric. Like just the adoption of the perp has gone incredibly well. And perp's platforms are just generating some of the greatest profits out of crypto that we've seen.
Starting point is 00:03:12 And so this is why people are excited. You know, first we can start with Bitcoin, but we have a whole industry of assets that we would like to purify. Maybe in the same way that we had the ETFs. You know, first we started with Bitcoin and then Ether came. and then there are even more ETS. Is that something that's going to happen with PURPS as well? Well, one important point is just in the week since we saw the green lighting of the Bitcoin
Starting point is 00:03:37 perpetual contract, we've now seen a number of products self-certified as perpetual contracts in the digital commodity world. So we break down at the SEC and CFTC crypto assets using clear rules, unlike the last administration, the crypto assets in the category. So we have digital commodities. and these are assets that derive their value from a network or a protocol or an application, things like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Uniswops token, these types of tokens that derive value from a network or product or application.
Starting point is 00:04:09 All of those products, with certain requirements around the product being listed, the products have to have a ready market, have to be not readily susceptible to manipulation and so on and so forth, but provided that the contract meets our requirements, those can be self-certified. That means that the exchange can list those products without having to ask for permission first. They can essentially submit them and we can reject the contract if we believe there is an issue with our regulations, but they can be listed fairly easily.
Starting point is 00:04:40 So we've seen a number of those be listed in the past week. We expect to see more in the future, but then moving into other categories, digital collectibles, for example, meme coins, those sorts of. of assets, we would expect a process with the staff. We want those to go through a full approval with the CFTC and then moving into things beyond crypto equities, which we can certainly get into metals, other types of products. We would not be expecting those to be listed right away. There would be a process with the staff, but we're interested to engage with the exchanges on listing new products. So there are some crypto assets that are being given clarity by clarity.
Starting point is 00:05:21 and I think what I heard from you just now is those assets that have already kind of gone through the legislative process are able to be self-certified by CFTC approved platforms already. And this is just kind of how this goes. And so if you are a CFTC compliant exchange, you can self-certify, given the asset itself has already been given some sort of approval clarity through Clarity Act. Did I hear that correctly? Well, it's not the Clarity Act itself. So a couple months ago or maybe even three or four, months ago now, Chairman Atkins and I came together, worked together on an interpretation that divided up crypto assets into categories. And so we have crypto assets that are digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, things like liquid staking receipts, digital securities, tokenized stocks, and all of that, and stable coins. And so this perpetual order that we granted allows for self-certification of crypto assets in the digital commodities category and then beyond that, whether it's in crypto or in stocks or anything else, we would
Starting point is 00:06:26 expect a process with the staff, but the staff's ready to engage on other asset classes as well. I see. Okay. So like the big assets, the ones that are commonly found to be the layer one native assets, Bitcoin Ether, Solana, one could one could imagine as well are all in that category that you just said of just like it's going to be exchanges are going to be able to self-certify. And then as we maybe get a little bit further into more of the newer or more exotic assets in the in the crypto industry, that is a little bit of facts and circumstances about the nature of those things. That's absolutely right. And we have seen, I think there's about 17 other assets beyond Bitcoin that we saw self-certified by exchanges are in the process being self-certified in the past week. What are these exchanges? Because there is a bit of a gold rush for the United States perps market that players are just chomping on the bit. Coinbase, Robin Hood, Crackin, OKX, they all have United States entities that they want to, you know, offer perps for.
Starting point is 00:07:26 We have the prediction market platforms, Kalshi, which you guys gave the Bitcoin PURP contract for originally, but also Paulymarket ones in this game as well. But then we also have some of the more crypto-native on-chain platforms like Hyper Liquid, Lighter, a few of the other ones. So many players want access to this, the United States perps market. How do you guys delineate between the different nature of all these platforms? We're working with virtually all of these platforms. So Coin Basin call, she were the first two to launch. But we also have Bitnomial that's had a perpetual style contract for some time. Now it's not a true perpetual.
Starting point is 00:08:03 You can probably expect them to move in the same direction as well as other exchanges. I believe Cracken and Gemini, which Cracken actually owns Bitnomial. I believe they've made announcements of social media. There's many others that are looking to offer the product and we're excited to work with these different exchanges. And then when you get into the on-chain space, many of the considerations around on-chain products are different, but we're certainly engaging with these protocol developers
Starting point is 00:08:31 and firms to help get on-chain markets to the U.S. as well. As you would expect, the per market has grown offshore and now we're seeing it come onshore. Is the goal to get all of it onshore, or how do you expect the equilibrium to kind of settle out between some offshore markets will remain offshore? Or, you know, Chairman Mike Seelig, is it your job as the chairman of the CFTC to like get everything onshore as much as possible? Well, look, I think my goal as the chairman is to get everything within a regulated market structure here in the U.S. So to the extent that the product exists offshore and it's something that there's interest in the United States,
Starting point is 00:09:14 We want to bring it here. We want the volume. We want the liquidity. We want that ability to engage in productive economic activity here in the United States. But we have to protect investors. We have to make sure customer funds are safe. I do not want another FTX to happen. And I will add on that point, this CFTC regulated FTX entity was the only one that was safe,
Starting point is 00:09:36 that protected customer funds. And so regulation works well. This administration believes in regulation, but also an innovation. And so whether it's crypto, AI, prediction markets, new derivatives like perpetuals, we want it here in the U.S., but we're going to set guardrails around it. And those guardrails, we believe, will be best in class, the gold standard. We expect other countries to follow. But we are going to lead. We are going to make sure the United States is a leader in innovation.
Starting point is 00:10:02 How will the perps inside the United States work different than what is typically found offshore? So, like, what are those guardrails that will just kind of change to the nature of the per? found in the compliant U.S. market versus what may be found elsewhere. One important consideration is that each of our exchanges is CFTC registered. It has to offer a rulebook. It has to comply with certain core principles that are laid out in our statute. It's overseen by the CFTC. We examine each of these exchanges and then also the clearinghouse.
Starting point is 00:10:35 So each contract is run through a central counterparty clearinghouse. That means that there are certain controls that protect customer funds. Oftentimes, you're using a broker to access the clearinghouse to access the exchange. You're not going direct to the market, but we are starting to see many exchanges offer direct access, which we also think is a valuable thing for our markets. We like competition. We like optionality. So there's a wide range of regulations that apply here in the U.S. to these platforms relative to say something on chain that doesn't have a regulator. We also, of course, approve contracts for listing. So each contract has to not be readily susceptible to manipulation. I mentioned that some of
Starting point is 00:11:17 these go through a self-certification process, which means that we don't have to individually approve each one, but we have the ability to reject when something's submitted for listing. So that's very important. Leverage is a big issue. So leverage offshore, you see 250x, sometimes beyond that even. In the United States, we've seen more 5 to 7x range, sometimes getting up to 10. Some products like the SMP products moving outside of crypto have a higher leverage. But all this is based on certain parameters that are set by our regulations. And we work with the clearinghouses and with the exchanges on getting right. So for Bitcoin Perpetuals and some of these products, expect to see 5 to 7, maybe getting up to 10x
Starting point is 00:12:01 leverage, but nothing like you're getting offshore. And that's helpful for investors. That does protect customer funds. It may be not what people are excited about offshore. with some of the excessive leverage. But I think for the larger institutions that are looking to get into these contracts, and for the average investor,
Starting point is 00:12:18 this is a safer product than what you see offshore due to that lack of excessive leverage. And of course, our staff are looking at these products on a regular basis. They might make adjustments to that ratio. There's certain calculations based on, you know, a trailing 30-day average of the price and all of that that they're looking at.
Starting point is 00:12:39 but rest assured that regulations apply and that's going to help keep customer funds safe. One of the big categories that excites me and many others in the crypto industry is the rise of these on-chain platforms that are on blockchains and therefore are imbued with some of the things that we find exciting about blockchains.
Starting point is 00:12:58 They're auditable, they're transparent to the end user, they have just inherent more fairness. And so there are some of these platforms that when they're on a blockchain, I would expect as a regulator are exciting to you because of their transparency, their auditability. Some of these things actually want to open source their code and be able to show you at the CFTC, but also me as the user, exactly how the code operates. Does this change the nature of how the CFTC thinks about regulation in this space
Starting point is 00:13:30 when some of these platforms can just open, so open source their guts and show the world exactly how they operate? How does that change your job, if at all? Well, Bitcoin and blockchain technology really came about on the heels of the financial crisis. And financial crisis, in large part, was this issue of a lack of transparency in our markets because they were super opaque. We now have a number of forced reporting and forced transparency initiatives through our regulations as a result of Dodd-Frank and regulations thereunder. But blockchain technology solves a lot of that using technology instead of
Starting point is 00:14:07 of the brute force of the regulator. And so I am very excited about that. I think that blockchain offers a ton of benefits for our traditional markets and for some of these new markets that we're seeing on the frontier, things like prediction markets, things like new crypto asset products and perpetuals.
Starting point is 00:14:25 I expect to see this technology be used in a very broad way across our markets, whether it's in securities or commodity derivatives or the next new thing in our markets. So yes, I believe that transparency can be achieved through using on-chain data. The one issue that I have as a regulator is, I'll give you an example, if I'm looking to catch a bad actor who's engaging in insider trading or manipulation or fraud, I can get a ton of data on chain and I likely can pinpoint that person with enough
Starting point is 00:15:00 research and analytics to figure out who they are because they probably onboarded through one of the exchanges, let's say they're trading in defy. But I need to find a way to be able to catch some of these bad actors. So having tools, analytics tools is very helpful. I think the technology is in its early stages, but I do expect as on-chain technology continues to advance, it will become much easier for regulators to really lean into the technology for us to replace things like trade reporting to data repositories
Starting point is 00:15:32 with on-chain transaction data. because we can see the transaction occurred, that it settled to the Ethereum blockchain or to a layer two or wherever else. And we can figure out with a strong degree of certainty who the traders are and catch bad actors when, for example, they're trading, you know, using insider information or manipulating markets.
Starting point is 00:15:52 So I'm excited about it. I think we're in the earlier days, but we're getting there pretty fast. We work with a number of projects on trying to figure out how to substitute some of our existing rules and regulations for technology, how to automate things and really lean into blockchain technology. And of course, you've got cyber risks that we're thinking about constantly.
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Starting point is 00:19:09 Search the DeFi report. Wherever you get your podcast, YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or find a link in the show notes. There's a new episode waiting for you now. The spearhead of perps has really been pushed forward by this platform hyperliquid. The dominant in volume and adding all these new assets and and has really kind of just won the narrative in terms of growing the pert market.
Starting point is 00:19:32 And it has a lot of the properties that you just talked about. You know, it is on a blockchain and has some level of transparency as a result of that. But also it is, it is, you know, somewhat decentralized. And therefore, I don't think Hyperliquid will ever mandate or enforce KYC is just kind of antagonistic
Starting point is 00:19:49 to their platform. So it has some of these amazing properties, but also from the United States side of things, I don't think Hyperliquid will ever do KYC. how do you think about bringing hyperliquid onshore inside of the United States when it is built with this particular form factor that doesn't really fit with the pre-existing status quo? Yeah, so Hunter Biden's a big fan of that one.
Starting point is 00:20:14 Look, I think on-chain technology, whether it's hyper-liquid or any of these on-chain markets, is something that is going to, as I said, transform our markets. And we're already seeing the global nature of blockchain technology, transform the way that we're transacting here in the U.S. the way that our markets are functioning. 24-7 is also something that we greenlit. We've had this in our crypto markets and prediction markets for some time now,
Starting point is 00:20:43 but we just put out some guidance on 24-7 because exchanges are ready for it. They're excited about it. And I think that is really driven by blockchain technology, by perpetual sort of accessible 24-7-365. When you're looking at these on-chain markets, whether it's perpetuals or other types of derivatives markets that are on-chain, there are different considerations for on-chain markets. Certainly, some things are automated and smart contracts solve a lot of the things that our rules are designed to force. But you do have considerations. We've seen these auto-de-leveraging mechanisms cause some cascades of liquidations
Starting point is 00:21:26 and really create some adverse consequences that in the U.S. were not used to. And I'm not going to say that they're worse for investors or better. And in some cases, maybe these mechanisms work very well and they work as designed. And maybe the user's trust in that code and they understand that the code will work a certain way and they're happy to trade in that environment. But they're as a regulator, things that we have to think about and consider. So we're very excited to see these markets flourish in the United States. We want to create a path to bring these on-chain markets into the United States,
Starting point is 00:22:00 make sure that they comply with some form of regulation. You know, the last administration was so fixated on you have to come in and register and comply with the rules on the books as drafted for, you know, a 1934 exchange, right? We're leading into the future. We understand that our markets are changing, that technology is changing. We want to tailor fit our rules and regulations for these, new products and platforms and exchanges, recognizing that we need to protect investors. We need to make sure that customer funds are safe, or at least that there's an adequate amount
Starting point is 00:22:35 of disclosure and people understand what they're trading and how they're trading. So we're working on all that. We've been taking a number of measures at the commission to make sure that self-custodial wallet providers, for example, are able to offer access without having to register as a broker. we're looking at tokenization and the use of on-chain assets for settlement of contracts and all of that. So we're leaning into to on-chain technology. We're just getting started, but we are evaluating these platforms and engaging with many of them. We're excited to see the new frontier finance built here in the U.S.
Starting point is 00:23:09 One thing we're observing is that real-world asset perps are actually dominating volume over crypto. Perps, I think it's something over, over 60% of the volume of the Perps market is now looking. at real world assets like oil, gold, and now also these pre-IPO stocks as well. So Anthropics, SpaceX, OpenAI, these are all pre-IPO markets that you can trade with these perpetual instruments. These are our American companies. And so it's actually a bit weird that these markets are being hosted offshore. Do you want these markets to come offshore, these pre-IPO markets to come from being offshore to onshore? It's fascinating to see all of this activity offshore. of course we want to see that here in the U.S. in a regulated manner,
Starting point is 00:23:53 but we're assessing it. So I look forward to working with Chairman Atkins over at the SEC. A number of these products are security-based derivatives, whether they're futures or swaps or another type of product. That's certainly something that we will work through together. But we're excited to make sure that the new frontier finance is built here in the U.S., and that means new products, new services, new platforms. and we can't fear that.
Starting point is 00:24:18 We have to embrace it and come up with a pathway for it because in my view, if we erect barriers, if we push this activity offshore, it will go offshore and it's not going to benefit the American people
Starting point is 00:24:29 because they're going to go use a VPN and access it anyway and they have none of the protections. So if we can come up with a path for it the United States, we'll do it, and we're going to certainly work on it. These equity perp instruments
Starting point is 00:24:40 that people are getting excited about, it's kind of interesting because it's a perp, so therefore it's, under the purview of the CFTC, but it's an equity, so it's under the purview of the SEC. It's like a perfectly hybrid instrument
Starting point is 00:24:53 that requires both of your guys' collaboration, but therefore, you know, Project Crypto and the harmonization of the CFTC and SEC, so I'm not really worried about that. But is this unprecedented, or are there other contracts, derivative contracts that are around equity instruments that have required CFTC and SEC collaboration in the past,
Starting point is 00:25:14 like outside of crypto? Or is this something that's relatively, relatively new for these two agencies? Well, security futures, so whether it's perpetual or not, those products require joint authorization by both agencies. So the CFTC regulates the platforms,
Starting point is 00:25:31 the exchanges that offer these products, and then the exchange that has to notice register, so it goes through a shortened, abbreviated registration process with the SEC and approval process there. So we have collaborated on that in the past, but unfortunately, the CFTC and SEC have always been in these turf battles
Starting point is 00:25:48 fighting with one another, and so they've not wanted to work together to bring these products to market. And so usually the products sort of wind up on the sidelines and don't make it to market. We're working together. We want to get this right. We want to bring security futures,
Starting point is 00:26:04 security perpetuels, and other types of assets to market. We are working together to make sure also that persons trying to offer these products and engage in these markets aren't caught in the crosshairs like the Gary Gensler, Russ Benham years, where the two agencies were just bringing enforcement actions right and left.
Starting point is 00:26:21 You know, you go and comply with the CFTC and then the SECB brings an enforcement actuary. You comply with the CFTC, you know, and the opposite. So we're working to fix all of that and we're optimistic that we're going to see these products in near future. One thing I might think could be coming down the pike for this PIRP instrument,
Starting point is 00:26:41 this fight over the PIRP, is that the, the crypto offshore platforms, the startups, the more nimble moving companies have been really first to move here. But a PIRP is just an instrument. It is a neutral instrument can be applied anywhere. And I would actually expect some of the incumbents like the CME group and the commodities gargantuanes that are already out there are also looking at this. And they own the commodities volume. They own like the wheat and oil and all that kind of stuff. How, as a regulator, as a regulator do you balance the disruptors, you know, the coin bases, the Robin Hoods, the hyperliquids,
Starting point is 00:27:21 because you want these markets to come onshore and be compliant. But we have these gargantuan incumbents with all the commodities who are just going to be slow to move. But they do all of the actual like delivery of the actual real commodity underlying, which is like a nuance that I don't think hyperliquid wants to at all deal with when it trades oil. And so there's going to be a little bit of like tetracing behind who gets what. And I don't really know how that unfolds, but as a regulator, you're going to be at the center of this. I would imagine, this is me kind of just like future escaping here,
Starting point is 00:27:56 is what I'm talking about real? Is there a real fight down the line between these incumbents and the disruptors over like the turf war of the purpose? Well, look, I think with all of these various products, we want to bring them into the U.S. in a regulated context. I think the two agencies certainly have to work together
Starting point is 00:28:17 to get all this right. When it comes to incumbent exchanges, our mandate as an agency is fair competition. So we're not standing in the way of any incumbents from coming into these markets and offering new products.
Starting point is 00:28:33 We love to see innovation. We love to see a competition between new entrants and old entrance. So we're here for that. Certainly with some of these exchanges, they're duly registered, and there's aspects where the two agencies, the CFDC and SEC will need to work together to make sure they can bring their products to market. But we're excited about that. What I do want to get clear, though, is that when it comes to some of the allegations
Starting point is 00:28:58 around what products are available for trading, we've been very clear. We're starting, and the president also asked for this in his president's working group report. This is something that's very much in line with what the administration has already said many months ago, we're coming to the market with crypto perps. We will consider other products, whether it's agricultural. We are concerned about that. We don't necessarily think that people, that there's a place for corn perpetual contracts.
Starting point is 00:29:29 We actually haven't gotten requests for that. But to the extent firms want engaged on that, we'll consider it. But to your point, the deliverable supply issue, looking at the commercial realities. Some of these contracts, they're dated for a reason because the commodity comes to harvest during that period. There's other seasonal changes in the market.
Starting point is 00:29:49 And so it may not make sense to have a corn or a live cattle perpetual contract, and we certainly have not greenlit any of that. We've been very clear in our release that that's something that we would expect heavy engagement with the staff if someone were to try to bring to market. There are other products that may, be closer to crypto that we're happy to engage on. But the two areas where we expect engagement
Starting point is 00:30:14 in the near term are additional crypto products and some of these equity products. And that equity engagement will be between the SEC and the CFDC. Maybe I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself then in the sense that we have a whole entire crypto industry that we need to bring onshore using the perp instrument. We will also talk about the equity perps because that is simply just relevant that's here today. And as the perp grows and the CME group and the incumbents inside of the in Chicago, they'll get to, they'll do their perp things in the future. But let's just worry about that then in 2027, 2028 down the line and we'll just worry
Starting point is 00:30:54 about what's happening here and the now. That's what I just heard from you. That's right. Look, some of these incumbents may not like perps and one offer perps too. And that's totally fine. I think there could be competition between a 24th. 4-7 model that someone wants to offer and feels comfortable with versus a perpetual 24-7 model. So I think there will be all sorts of options available to the market and the marketplace will
Starting point is 00:31:17 decide. I think it's a free economy and people can go purchase the assets they want to purchase, but we're going to make sure that there's rules and regulations in place to protect investors when they do so. On the crypto side of things, crypto volume has really flipped to be about 90% per volume, percent spot. So it's gotten pretty top-heavy. Are we concerned about the derivative markets being so top-heavy and potentially causing issues potentially systemic if just the volumes are all derivative-based and spot actually kind of thins out? Well, if you look at other commodity asset classes, this is not uncommon because you have so much leverage in the derivatives markets. So our global derivatives markets are actually 1.2 quadrillion notional. So there's a lot of trading volume there,
Starting point is 00:32:03 if you think about that as well, it's just a lot more to be traded. So that's correct, but I don't necessarily think it tells the whole story. I think this is something if you mapped on other commodities to that same framework, you'd have a similar amount of leverage in the system, a similar amount of volume disparity from spot to the futures market. And also in particular with commodities, the futures market is much more liquid. And you've got the ability to go trade on an exchange, whereas with live, cattle, you're going to an auction. So it's a little bit different market to market. But it's
Starting point is 00:32:37 certainly something that we're looking at and thinking about. The core concern for us is that these markets are not readily susceptible to manipulation. So if we're looking at, for example, Bitcoin relative to, you know, some meme coin of choice, Pepe or something like that, you know, we're going to think about how much supply there is, how much spot trading, how much susceptibility there is to manipulation in the spot relative to the futures. Chairman, it's been fantastic having you on once again. I also just appreciate it as a content producer, being able to access people like you
Starting point is 00:33:09 and get answers directly from people like you. Gary Gensler never came on the show despite our invitation, so I appreciate you. The crypto industry is pretty bullish perps as a whole. And we kind of think that we're going to perpify everything. The perp is such a strong instrument that everything is going to get perped. how do you think about such a bullish notion like that?
Starting point is 00:33:32 Maybe we need to tamper our expectations, or maybe you also think that all of these platforms also might just add perps, maybe a little bit more modest with leverage than we see on the crypto side of things, but nonetheless, everything will get purified. How do you think about this question? The CFTC hasn't approved a new type of derivative instrument
Starting point is 00:33:51 for over a decade. I think it's incredibly exciting that we now have perpetuals in the lineup, and we're going to continue to engage with the exchanges on bringing some more of these products to market. So this is just the beginning, as I said, at the outset, it's not the end. We expect to see more of these products
Starting point is 00:34:09 and we'll continue to monitor the market and make sure that investors are protected, but we're also seeing innovation in our markets. And I'm very excited to have conversations with the SEC about equity, perpetuals, and other types of products. So I think it's a time to be excited. It's certainly a time to,
Starting point is 00:34:27 be building here in the United States, and we'll continue to make sure that the United States is the crypto capital of the world. Chairman Mike Selegg, thanks for coming on the show. Thanks for having me. Bankless station, you guys know the deal. Crypto is risky. You can lose what you put in,
Starting point is 00:34:40 but nonetheless, this is the frontier. It's not for everyone, but we are glad you're with us on the bankless journey. Thanks a lot.

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