On 17 February 2026, the US CFTC filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in North American Derivatives Exchange, Inc. v. State of Nevada. The brief confirmed the US CFTC’s exclusive jurisdiction over U.S. commodity derivatives markets, including event contract markets commonly referred to as prediction markets.
The filing marked the US CFTC’s first formal judicial intervention in the rapidly expanding litigation over the legal status of event contracts and prediction markets. The brief advanced three interlocking legal arguments: event contracts are swaps under United States Commodity and Exchange Act (CEA Act) under Section 1a(47), the CEA Act field preempts state gambling laws as applied to DCM listed event contracts and state gambling laws are independently preempted under conflict preemption doctrine. The US CFTC has filed only eight amicus briefs since the turn of the century, therefore the rarity and importance of this intervention.
The amicus filing intervention in support of Crypto.com’s appeal against the Nevada Gaming Control Board, US CFTC has placed its institutional authority behind the position that federally regulated event contracts preempt state gaming enforcement. Multiple appellate courts, including the Third, Fourth and Ninth Circuits, are expected to address this jurisdictional question in the coming months.
US CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig stated: “CFTC-registered exchanges have faced an onslaught of lawsuits seeking to limit Americans’ access to event contracts and undermine the CFTC’s sole regulatory jurisdiction over prediction markets. This power grab ignores the law and decades of precedent. Event contracts allow businesses and individuals to hedge event-driven risks, enable investors to manage portfolio exposure, and provide the public with information about the outcome of future events. These products are commodity derivatives and squarely within the CFTC’s regulatory remit. As I’ve said before, the CFTC has the expertise and responsibility to defend its exclusive jurisdiction over commodity derivatives, and that’s exactly what we’ll do.”
(Source: https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9183-26)
