Alliance files reply in stock perpetuals fight as court accepts SEC amicus brief
The trade group suing the CFTC over single-stock perpetuals filed its reply on Nov. 10 as the SEC, CME and others sought to weigh in as amici.
The Capital Markets Alliance Association filed its reply brief on November 10, 2026, asking a federal judge in New York to halt single-stock perpetual futures approved for Kalshi, Coinbase and Bitnomial. The reply, in the case before Judge Lorna G. Schofield in the Southern District of New York, came the same day the court accepted a friend-of-the-court brief from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The alliance wants a preliminary injunction and a stay under 5 U.S.C. § 705 of the CFTC’s approvals of the contracts. It argues that harm to its members is no longer speculative, the gap that sank its request for a temporary restraining order on November 3, when Judge Valerie Caproni denied that request while finding the group likely to win its core claim.
What the alliance argues
The brief contends that Kalshi listed four stock perpetuals on the day of that order and more than fifty within two days, with reported trailing 24-hour notional volume of about $375 million on the second day after launch. It also points to an ExxonMobil perpetual that, it argues, reached 1.14% of the stock’s daily dollar volume on its first day. Cboe and Citadel Securities, two of the alliance’s members, contend they lose trades and revenue they cannot recover each day the contracts trade.
On the merits, the alliance argues that a “security future” is by statute “a contract of sale for future delivery of a single security,” and that perpetuals, which never expire, have no delivery obligation at all. In its view they are security-based swaps under the SEC’s exclusive jurisdiction. It argues that closing out a position is not delivery, and that the CFTC’s test for a futures contract would make any cleared, exchange-traded security-based swap on a single stock a security future.
The reply also rejects the CFTC’s position that it took no reviewable “action” because the applications were deemed approved when a 45-day review period ran out. The alliance argues that a deemed approval is the agency’s final action, noting that the CFTC chairman called the approvals a “milestone.” It further contends the agency reversed, without explanation, a years-long enforcement position that perpetuals are swaps, and that its May 2026 approval of Kalshi’s bitcoin perpetual expressly did not reach beyond digital commodities.
On standing, the brief answers the CFTC’s description of the alliance as a “sham.” It identifies members including Cboe, Citadel Securities and Healthy Markets. It asks the court to bar the contracts from trading by approval, certification or otherwise, and to deny the CFTC’s requests for a bond and a stay pending appeal.
A crowded docket
The SEC asked on November 9 for leave to file an amicus brief, and an order on November 10 granted it and deemed the brief filed. Its text was not publicly available on the CourtListener docket as of November 11.
A separate order granted the brief from Kalshi, Coinbase and four other firms that asked to back the CFTC, but denied Coinbase’s request to take part in oral argument. On November 10, CME, Better Markets with John Coates and Allison Herren Lee, and a group of five filers (John Coffee, James Cox, Gina-Gail Fletcher, George Georgiev and Joel Seligman) each moved to file amicus briefs. The American Securities Association sought leave to support the alliance with a brief on harm to retail investors; its letter says the alliance consents and the defendants oppose on timeliness grounds. A filing listed as a response in opposition to a motion was entered on November 11 but was not available to read.
What comes next
Neither the reply nor the docket entries reviewed give a date for a hearing or oral argument. The alliance argues an evidentiary hearing is unnecessary, asks the court to keep the expedited schedule, and offers to present evidence if a hearing would help.
As of November 11, no order blocks the approvals, and Kalshi announced its launch of the contracts on November 5. The motion now rests with Judge Schofield. The earlier ruling found the alliance likely to win on the statute but its harm showing too speculative, so the new trading figures go to the one element it failed.
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