WASHINGTON, August 19, 2026 — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued a request for comment on the listing of compute derivatives contracts as the agency examines an emerging derivatives market tied to the price of access to computing power, or compute, used in artificial intelligence.
The CFTC said the request is intended to inform its understanding and oversight of derivatives markets in compute. The agency is seeking input on compute cash markets, market oversight and manipulation concerns, customer protection and perpetual compute futures, while also inviting comments on other aspects of compute markets.
“America cannot win the AI race without a robust derivatives market for compute,” CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig said. He described the request as a first step toward establishing clear rules for U.S. compute markets.
Comments will be accepted for 60 days following publication of the request in the Federal Register.
Compute as an emerging derivatives market
The CFTC describes compute as access to computing power, primarily the processing power used by large language models at the center of the AI economy. The Commission said compute has become a multi-hundred-billion-dollar enterprise and characterized it as a scarce, capital-intensive commodity.
The request focuses primarily on derivatives with compute as the underlying commodity that could be listed for trading by designated contract markets, or DCMs. The Commission said compute derivatives are a comparatively new and evolving class of products and is seeking industry input that could help advance their standardization in a way that promotes transparency, liquidity and responsible innovation.
Under the Commodity Exchange Act, DCMs are subject to statutory Core Principles and applicable CFTC regulations. Among those requirements, exchanges may list only derivative contracts that are not readily susceptible to manipulation and must have the capacity to prevent manipulation, price distortion and disruptions to delivery or cash settlement.
Pricing and manipulation challenges
The Commission identified several potential obstacles to the development of a mature compute derivatives market. It said its preliminary understanding is that compute markets are fragmented and that price formation occurs primarily through opaque bilateral transactions, limiting the availability of current and historical pricing data.
Pricing can also vary substantially across providers, regions and contract structures. The CFTC said compute may not yet exhibit some characteristics typically associated with commodities underlying derivatives markets, including fungibility, standardization and sufficient liquidity.
The Commission preliminarily understands that most compute derivatives initially would be cash-settled because of potential infrastructure-related challenges associated with delivering the underlying commodity. For cash-settled contracts, the reliability of the reference price is particularly important because the settlement price must provide a robust indicator of the value of the underlying commodity.
The CFTC is therefore seeking input on whether a compute derivatives contract based on an index derived predominantly from bilateral and privately priced transactions could meet requirements designed to prevent contracts from being readily susceptible to manipulation. It is also asking what surveillance capabilities exchanges would need and whether information-sharing arrangements with compute venues and capacity providers should be expected or required.
Customer protection and perpetual futures
The request raises customer-protection questions specific to the developing compute market. The Commission is seeking input on potential anti-money laundering and know-your-customer concerns, disclosure requirements, risks associated with offering derivatives tied to what it describes as a geopolitically sensitive commodity, and whether unique protections may be necessary for retail participants.
The CFTC is separately examining perpetual compute futures. It asks whether perpetual contracts could provide advantages over traditional fixed-date futures or commercial risk-management capabilities that existing products cannot provide.
The Commission is also seeking comment on whether perpetual compute derivatives could create unique risks for market participants or broader markets and whether exchanges or the regulator should adopt additional protections or safeguards for such products.
Why it matters
The request marks an early regulatory examination of how derivatives tied to AI computing capacity could operate within the CFTC’s existing market framework. Rather than assuming compute is already suitable for a mature derivatives market, the Commission is examining fundamental questions around price formation, liquidity, standardization, manipulation risk and customer protection.
The inclusion of perpetual compute futures broadens that examination to a contract structure that does not rely on a traditional fixed expiration date. The consultation could help shape how exchanges approach the design and potential listing of compute derivatives as the market for AI computing capacity develops.
