After oil standoff with CME, CFTC opens public debate on round-the-clock futures

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will host an industry roundtable on December 15 to examine whether, and in which asset classes, US derivatives markets should move to round-the-clock trading, according to Opalesque for New Managers. The event follows a request for comment the agency issued in the summer and reflects how overnight and weekend trading has moved from a crypto niche to a central market structure question in Washington. According to the CFTC, the discussion will cover overnight trading, tokenization, infrastructure and staffing needs, and operational readiness. Agenda, speakers and registration details will be published later, and the public may submit speaker nominations to [email protected].

Crypto has led the shift. CME Group switched its entire cryptocurrency futures and options suite to 24/7 trading on May 29, 2026, with only a two-hour Saturday maintenance window, and roughly 7,200 contracts worth about USD50m in notional value traded over the first weekend. The same month, the CFTC approved Kalshi's bitcoin perpetual futures contract, the first perpetual listed on a US designated contract market. CME, which opposes perpetual futures, subsequently challenged that approval in court.

Energy has proven far more contentious. On June 22 the CFTC requested comment on extending standard futures to 24/7 trading and on listing perpetuals on physically delivered or storable commodities such as crude oil. On July 8 CME's NYMEX self-certified a 10-barrel WTI crude contract designed to trade around the clock, but the CFTC stayed the listing the next day, with Selig calling the move "wholly inappropriate" while consultation remained open. According to Argus, oil industry executives and commodity trading firms held at least nine meetings with Selig in the preceding two weeks. CME has since withdrawn the oil contract. The comment period was extended to August 26 and closed with around 50 submissions. On October 20 Kalshi asked the CFTC to approve a WTI perpetual tracking the front-month NYMEX price, leaving the energy debate unresolved.

Selig has consistently argued that 24/7 trading "isn't for everybody." He told a House Agriculture Committee hearing in April that agricultural contracts may require a different framework, and in September he identified crypto and precious metals as markets that may currently be suitable, while agricultural products, energy and certain financial contracts may not. He has also said tokenization, on-chain finance and 24/7 trading will likely bring more change to financial markets over the next decade than the previous several decades combined.

For hedge funds and CTAs, weekend and overnight sessions would allow faster reaction to geopolitical and macro events, but would bring thinner liquidity at odd hours, margin calls at any time, and the need for risk, operations and treasury teams to cover a market that never closes. The equity exchanges NYSE, Nasdaq and Cboe are pursuing near-24-hour weekday trading under the SEC, so the question is increasingly how far and how fast markets will extend their hours.