Offshore Perpetual Futures: CME-Backed Group Asks the CFTC to Close the VPN Route

Offshore perpetual futures became a lobbying target this week. The Commodity Markets Council, a group that represents derivatives exchanges including CME Group, asked the CFTC on October 22 to deny Kalshi's proposed WTI crude oil perpetual and to work with other regulators to stop US retail traders from reaching offshore derivatives platforms through VPNs, according to Bloomberg reporting summarized by CoinGape and The Crypto Times.

Two requests sit in one letter. The first is about whether a regulated US venue can list a never-expiring oil contract. The second is about whether US traders can keep using the offshore venues that already list one, and Hyperliquid is the name both reports put next to that point.

What the Commodity Markets Council Asked the CFTC For

The group told the CFTC that perpetual futures pose "a significant risk to market integrity," per ChainCatcher, citing Bloomberg. It urged the agency not to approve Kalshi's perpetual oil contract and to close the gaps that let retail investors trade on offshore platforms.

Kalshi submitted the WTI perpetual request earlier in the same week, per The Crypto Times. It already runs a WTI futures contract that began trading on weekdays earlier in October, and a PANews item carried by KuCoin News describes that existing contract as having a 10-year term and trading five days a week. Prediction News, citing Argus Media, notes that the CFTC's pending swap-rule reclassification could force Kalshi to restructure or withdraw the contract before it trades.

The public reporting does not include the text of the letter, its comment docket or the full list of signatories beyond CME Group. Until the filing itself is public, the specific mechanism the group wants for limiting VPN access is not known. Buildix covered the original design of the Kalshi oil contract in Kalshi WTI Perpetual Futures Filing.

Why Offshore Perpetual Futures Are the Real Target

Kalshi is not a small outlier in this fight. It already lists crypto perpetuals on Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and HYPE, gold and silver perpetuals described as CFTC-regulated, and a US 500 stock index perpetual launched earlier in October, per CoinGape. The oil contract would extend that line into energy.

The offshore request is where the stakes are larger for onchain traders. Both reports frame the letter against competition from offshore venues, naming Hyperliquid as a platform that offers perpetual markets on traditional assets that trade around the clock, per The Crypto Times. CME Group and the New York Stock Exchange reportedly urged the CFTC earlier in 2026 to scrutinize perpetual DEX markets over possible manipulation and sanctions risks, per the same report.

Read together, the two requests describe one position: slow the onshore perp product, and cut the retail route to the offshore one. Neither half is a rule yet. A trade group letter is an input to the CFTC, not an order, and the reporting does not say whether the agency has responded.

Hyperliquid and Lighter Are Moving the Other Way

The perp DEX side is going toward the regulator, not away from it. Hyperliquid is reportedly working with the CFTC to enter the US market in a compliant way, and President Donald Trump confirmed at a White House meeting with crypto stakeholders that the regulator was looking to bring the perp DEX into the US, per CoinGape. Jeff Yan's earlier pitch for US rules that target market deployers rather than the chain is covered in Hyperliquid Regulation: Jeff Yan Wants U.S. Rules on Deployers.

Lighter made its own move the same week. Founder Vladimir Novakovski said Lighter plans to file a derivatives license application with the CFTC in November, after about a year of talks with regulators, with the aim of becoming the first onchain perpetual swap DEX approved by the agency, per TechFlow citing Crypto Briefing. If approved, Lighter expects to offer compliant onchain trading to US institutions and set up a US operating entity. The LIT token rose more than 15% to about $3.90 on the news, per the same report.

Scale matters for who has more to lose. Lighter did about $56 billion in 30-day volume in early October, against roughly $203 billion for Hyperliquid, per DefiLlama figures cited in a Delphi Digital report and summarized by BeInCrypto. Variational and Aster ranked between the two.

What Changes for Orderflow if the VPN Route Closes

Nothing changes today. The letter is a request, the Kalshi oil contract is under review, and no public data in this week's reporting measures how much offshore perp volume comes from US retail behind VPNs. Any number on that share should be treated as a guess until a venue or regulator publishes one.

What a trader can watch is where the flow goes if the pressure turns into policy. Three signals would show it first. Volume and open interest migrating between venues on the same asset, such as BTC or HYPE perps listed both on Kalshi and on Hyperliquid. A divergence in funding between the onshore and offshore contracts on the same underlying, which tells you which book carries the more crowded side. And weekend behavior on HIP-3 commodity markets, since a 24/7 offshore oil perp is exactly what a five-day onshore contract cannot match.

Regulatory headlines also hit funding and open interest before they hit price. A credible enforcement step aimed at retail access would likely show up first as open interest dropping on the affected venue while spot barely moves. That pattern is different from a liquidation cascade, where open interest falls together with a sharp price move.

Tracking Offshore Perp Flow on Hyperliquid

Buildix is built on Hyperliquid data, including HIP-3 markets, so shifts in Hyperliquid volume, open interest and funding show up in the screener as they happen. If US access rules start to bite, the first evidence will be in those columns, well before any trade group issues a follow-up letter.

The fight over perpetual futures in the US has moved from whether they should exist onshore to who gets to serve US traders. Incumbent exchanges are asking the CFTC to slow new onshore listings and wall off offshore ones, while Hyperliquid and Lighter are trying to walk in through the front door. Which side the CFTC answers first will decide where the next round of US perp orderflow prints.