CFTC Greenlights Perpetual Futures on U.S. Stocks
Kalshi, Coinbase, and Bitnomial already have filings in, though the onshore version comes with set trading hours and far less leverage than offshore perps.
CFTC Chair Mike Selig announced this morning that perpetual futures on individual U.S. equities can begin trading on CFTC-registered exchanges for the first time. The products are classified as security futures, which puts them under both CFTC and SEC oversight.
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The ruling: The contracts were "deemed approved" under Commission Regulation 40.3, meaning the review window closed without objection. Only venues that are both CFTC-designated contract markets and SEC notice-registered for security futures can list them. The statement names no exchanges and no tickers.
Who's in line: Kalshi, Coinbase Derivatives, and Bitnomial (Kraken's parent, Payward) all filed perp rules on Sept. 18th. Kalshi's filing covers up to 58 contracts on large caps including Apple, Nvidia, and Tesla; Bitnomial's starter list is ten names. Coinbase Vice Chairman Ryan VanGrack said the exchange is "getting equity perps ready for U.S. customers." No venue has posted a launch date.
Not the offshore product: The filed contracts run Sunday evening to Friday afternoon ET, not 24/7, with margin floors around 15%, or roughly 6.5x leverage. Offshore venues go much higher, and nothing here opens Hyperliquid's existing stock perps to Americans. Even still, Hyperliquid Strategies CEO David Schamis called this new classification "a real step toward bringing Hyperliquid onshore."
The pushback: SIFMA asked regulators yesterday to pause and take public comment first, Better Markets called the products a gambling tool in disguise, and CME is still suing the CFTC on the theory that perps are swaps, not futures.
William M. Peaster
William M. Peaster, Senior Writer, has been with Bankless since January 2021. Immersed in Ethereum since 2017, he covers the onchain frontier with a particular interest in art, games, and other culture apps. He has a background in creative writing and writes fiction in his free time.
