Case 2:25-cv-01541-JCM-DJA Document 1 Filed 08/19/25 Page 9 of 26
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for an event contract trade through her Kalshi account, which is then executed on Kalshi’s exchange. Here, the user interface is Robinhood’s instead of Kalshi’s, which is convenient for Robinhood customers but does not affect the way in which trades are executed on Kalshi’s exchange or regulated by the CFTC; it merely adds additional CFTC regulation of Robinhood’s activities as an FCM. C. The Commodity Exchange Act and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Since the 1930s, futures contracts have been regulated by the federal government. In 1936, Congress passed the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”), which provided for federal regulation of all commodity futures trading activities and required that all futures and commodity options be traded on organized, regulated exchanges. 33. In 1974, Congress passed a series of amendments to update the CEA’s 32. regulatory framework and established the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”), which is empowered to oversee and regulate commodity futures and (since 2010) swaps trading under the CEA. Congress intended to centralize regulatory authority with the CFTC to avoid the “total chaos” that could ensue if states attempted to regulate the futures markets, thereby subjecting exchanges to different regulations. Hearings Before the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, United States Senate, on S. 2485, S. 2587, S. 2837 and H.R. 13113, 93d Cong., 2d Sess. 685 (1974) (“Senate Hearings”) (statement of Sen. Clark); see also Am. Agric. Movement, Inc. v. Bd. of Trade of City of Chicago , 977 F.2d 1147, 1156 (7th Cir. 1992) (setting forth legislative history of the CFTC Act of 1974), abrogated on other grounds by Time Warner Cable v. Doyle , 66 F.3d 867, 875 (7th Cir. 1995). Accordingly, Congress put “all exchanges and all persons in the industry under the same set of rules and regulations for the protection of all concerned.” H.R. Rep. No. 93-975, at 79 (1974). Indeed, Congress considered adding but ultimately removed from the bill’s final language a provision of the CEA that would have preserved parallel state authority over futures trading. See 120 Cong. Rec. 30,464 (1974) (statements of Sens. Curtis and Talmadge). As described below, the CEA was further amended
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