Arthur Hayes ‘flattered’ as Coinbase backs US stock perps

Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX, said he was “flattered” by Coinbase’s support for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in a US legal dispute over stock perpetual futures.

“When we launched the perpetual swap at BitMEX in 2016, Washington’s reaction was less than warm,” Hayes told Cointelegraph. “Ten years later, Coinbase is in federal court defending the right to offer them on US stocks. I’m flattered. Imitation is the sincerest form of regulation.”

Coinbase and five other companies submitted a brief on Monday opposing the alliance’s request to block trading in perpetual futures tied to individual stocks. The court accepted the brief on Tuesday.

The Capital Markets Alliance Association (CMAA), which brought the lawsuit, says the contracts should be treated as security-based swaps, which face tighter restrictions on retail trading.

Hayes was CEO of BitMEX when the crypto derivatives exchange launched its Bitcoin perpetual swap, which let traders take leveraged positions on Bitcoin without a fixed expiration date. The product helped make perpetual swaps a staple of crypto trading.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reportedly submitted a proposed court brief on Monday, opposing the alliance’s request to temporarily halt trading in the contracts.

The agency said it was reviewing the exchanges’ rules for listing the contracts. The brief left open whether the SEC would set those rules aside and whether the contracts qualify as security futures or security-based swaps.