June 18, 2026
WHEN: Today, Wednesday, June 17, 2026
WHERE: CNBC’s “Fast Money”
Following are excerpts from the unofficial transcript of a CNBC exclusive interview with CME Group Outgoing CEO Terry Duffy on CNBC’s “Fast Money” (M-F, 5PM-6PM ET) today, Wednesday, June 17. Following is a link to video on CNBC.com: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/06/17/cme-ceo-terry-duffy-on-suing-cftc-im-always-up-for-a-good-battle-i-wont-shy-away-from-this.html.
All references must be sourced to CNBC.
DUFFY ON SUING CFTC
TERRY DUFFY: You know me, I’m always up for a good battle. I’ve never shied away from one, and I won’t shy away from this. I’ve been working on this plan with my board for eight months. I didn’t start working on it two weeks ago Friday, when there was quick approval of a perpetual future. So this takes a lot of time, a lot of fiduciary, this is the biggest obligation of any public company board, and my board took it very seriously.
DUFFY: I’m prepared and I will be prepared to go through this. And that’s why I wanted to announce on your show that we will be filing this litigation tomorrow because we are not taking this lightly. I’m not trying to pick a fight with anybody. I’m just trying to state the law. So it’s not personal, just trying to state the law.
DUFFY ON VIOLATION OF COMMODITIES ACT
DUFFY: They would have to list them as swaps if that’s the way that it came out. I still believe that he is in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act, but again, my suit will be based around the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, not the Commodity Exchange Act of 2000.
DUFFY ON REGULATORY CLARITY
DUFFY: I think it’s worth us putting up a, to get clarity. I think that the markets grow when there’s regulatory clarity. And I think that they go the other way when there’s regulatory uncertainty. And I think that’s what’s going on right now. I think there’s regulatory uncertainty. So we are willing to move forward. I’m willing to move forward to create regulatory clarity.
DUFFY ON NO INNOVATION WITH PERPETUAL FUTURES
DUFFY: I’d like to know what the innovation is when it comes to perpetual futures. It’s supposedly, there is no innovation associated with it. The difference is on the, there is no expiration on what’s perpetual versus the traditional futures market. So there is no real true innovation at all. It’s just a replica of a futures contract is today, except it doesn’t expire. So there’s no innovation there.
DUFFY ON EQUITIES
DUFFY: But when you look at interest rates, they have embedded, you know, dates of certainty associated with them. When you have commodity products, they get consumed or disposed of. So those are not perpetual. And then in the equities, Melissa, you know this, we have an exclusive license with every single provider of the benchmarks so all of these would have to go through CME regardless of the perpetual.
For more information contact:
Stephanie Hirlemann
CNBC
