Citadel presses SEC to claim jurisdiction over event contracts on public companies
Regulation & Gov ·
Citadel Securities has petitioned the SEC to assert oversight of event contracts tied to public companies, arguing exchanges could use CFTC self-certification to sidestep securities rules.
Citadel Securities' petition, reported by The Block, warns that trading venues could rely on the CFTC's self-certification process to list contracts referencing individual public companies without triggering SEC review. Self-certification lets exchanges launch new derivatives products by attesting they comply with existing law, rather than seeking prior approval from a regulator—a mechanism Citadel says leaves an opening for venues to offer products that function like securities-linked instruments while staying inside CFTC-regulated event-contract markets.
The core concern is jurisdictional: event contracts tied to the performance or outcomes of specific public companies sit close to territory the SEC has historically overseen through securities law, but they can be structured and listed as CFTC-regulated products. Citadel Securities is asking the SEC to assert its own authority over this category rather than leave the determination to the CFTC's certification framework, according to the same report.
The petition lands amid broader regulatory activity around prediction and event markets. The CFTC has separately moved with the DOJ to block a state prosecution of Kalshi over sports and election contracts, arguing those products qualify as regulated federal swaps, and CFTC Chair Michael Selig has publicly promoted prediction markets such as Polymarket as tools that outperform polls and should be supported by U.S. rules. Binance's American arm has also said it plans to seek CFTC designated contract market status to offer prediction markets. Those developments illustrate an environment in which event-contract venues are expanding and regulators are actively defining boundaries around them, the backdrop against which Citadel's petition was filed.
What remains unresolved is whether the SEC will act on Citadel's request, and if so, how it would divide authority with the CFTC over event contracts referencing public companies. No timeline for an SEC response has been reported, and it is not yet clear whether any specific contract or venue has already used self-certification in the way Citadel describes. Further filings or public comments from the SEC or CFTC would clarify whether the agencies intend to coordinate on the jurisdictional question Citadel has raised.