The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) says perpetual futures tied to individual stocks can now begin trading on CFTC-registered exchanges.
The regulator made the announcement on Tuesday, 3 November. It is the first time equity perpetual futures can trade on registered US exchanges.
What perpetual futures are
Perpetual futures, or perps, track the price of an asset but have no expiry date. Traders can hold leveraged positions for as long as they keep up with margin and funding payments.
The product became popular on crypto exchanges, where perps are among the most traded contracts. Until now, they were largely off-limits to US traders.
How the approval works
The equity perps were deemed approved as security futures products under the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. That puts them under joint oversight by the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), under an agreement the two agencies signed in March.
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said the agency had been directed to “onshore perpetual derivative products so that they can flourish in the U.S.” He added that the new frontier of finance “is built in the United States of America.”
SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said products like these had been left in a regulatory “no man’s land” before the agreement between the two agencies.
Who could list them
The CFTC did not name any exchange or product launching immediately. Coinbase recently filed to list single-stock perps on companies including Apple, Tesla and Nvidia, and the decision clears the way for that filing.
The move follows the CFTC’s earlier approval of Bitcoin perpetual futures on Kalshi, as the regulator brings more crypto-style products under US oversight.
What happens next
The next step is for exchanges to list the first equity perps and set out who can trade them. Details on retail access, margin rules and launch dates had not been published at the time of writing.
