CoinDesk hosts Rebecca Rettig and Renato Mariotti open on the record-breaking SpaceX IPO, then turn to Terry Duffy's exit from CME and the exchange's threatened lawsuit against the CFTC over whether perpetuals are swaps or futures. Their guest is Dan Berkovitz, former Commissioner of the CFTC and former General Counsel of the SEC, now at Millennium Management, who brings a rare both-agencies vantage point to the push for SEC–CFTC harmonization, the swaps-versus-futures fight over perps, and the "economic purpose" test he argues sports-betting prediction markets cannot meet.
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Check out CoinDesk's latest episode of Public Keys from the NYSE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75LrBmSScvY&list=PLZWrc_gWChqnim-9ZbIKZTOrPA7IgFKVR&pp=sAgC
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Register now for CoinDesk’s Policy and Regulation event on September 22, 2026: https://policy-regulation.coindesk.com/.
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Timecodes:
00:00 The Role of CFTC
00:25 Welcome to The Policy Protocol
00:44 The Record SpaceX IPO and Retail Demand
01:41 Synthetic SpaceX Perps on Hyperliquid
03:40 Terry Duffy Exits CME and Sues the CFTC
06:07 Dan Berkovitz Joins the Show
06:44 Can the SEC and CFTC Harmonize?
08:29 Are Perpetuals Swaps or Futures?
09:11 Prediction Markets and the 'Economic Purpose' Test
11:07 The ErisX Sports Betting Precedent
13:07 The Hurricane Hedging Counterargument
15:02 Why Crypto Couldn't 'Come In and Register' Before
17:28 Gary Gensler Is Back
20:27 Person of the Week: Jamie McDonald
