A Cboe and Citadel Securities-backed group sues the CFTC in New York the same day the agency cleared never-expiring futures on single stocks

The CFTC's decision to let never-expiring futures on individual stocks trade on US exchanges lasted hours before it reached a courtroom. A group calling itself the Capital Markets Alliance filed suit against the agency in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday, CoinDesk reports. Reuters described the plaintiff as an industry group backed by Cboe and Citadel Securities; a spokesman for the group told CoinDesk its members include Cboe, Citadel Securities and the Healthy Markets Association.

The complaint argues that perpetual futures on single stocks are security-based swaps, which fall to the SEC rather than the CFTC, and that the agency violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to explain the policy or why it departs from an earlier position, according to CoinDesk. It asks the court to eliminate the policy, which the CFTC announced Tuesday about five months after it first cleared bitcoin perpetual futures.

The CFTC pushed back. A spokesman told CoinDesk it was troubling that an anonymous group was using litigation to interfere with CFTC-regulated markets, which "should be governed by law, not litigation campaigns intended to block innovation." The American Securities Association also criticised the policy, saying the agency had sidestepped the SEC's jurisdiction by labelling stock perps as security futures.

The case joins a separate challenge from CME Group, which argues that perpetual futures are swaps, not futures, because they never expire. Cryptoweek covered the CFTC's approval earlier on Tuesday.