Coinbase wants to list perpetual futures on individual US stocks, giving American traders leveraged exposure to companies like Apple and Nvidia without owning a single share.
The Wall Street Journal reports the exchange is planning roughly 50 to 60 contracts, with Apple, Microsoft, Tesla and Nvidia among the names under consideration, and is targeting a launch later this year if regulators clear them.
“Building on the progress of our live US perps market, we’re working to bring liquid, 24/5 exposure to individual stocks in the US for the first time,” Coinbase said.
What Coinbase Has Actually Filed
The paperwork went in earlier this month, and it is worth being precise about what it was. Coinbase Derivatives filed a Form 1-N with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Coinbase Financial Markets filed a Form BD-N to register as a security futures product broker-dealer.
“We’re working to bring single stock perps to the US,” Coinbase said at the time. “This week, we filed SEC-notice registrations for our derivatives exchange and broker.”
Those are notice registrations for the venue and the broker. They are not approval of any contract. Single-stock futures are security futures products, which sit in territory shared by the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the contracts themselves, along with their specifications and leverage limits, still need clearance before a single one trades.
The distinction matters, because a filing and a launch are being reported as though they were the same event.
Crypto.com Is Chasing the Same Product
Coinbase is not alone in this, and the competition is further along on paper than most of the coverage suggests.
Crypto.com has registered Nadex, the North American Derivatives Exchange, for security futures products. The SEC acknowledged that filing on 16 September, two days after it was submitted, and the registration took effect immediately.
Chief executive Kris Marszalek has been explicit about where it goes next. “We are working with the SEC and the CFTC to offer single-stock perps in the U.S.,” he said. The company is seeking that approval separately and has given no timeline.
So two exchanges are pursuing the same product, both have venue paperwork in motion, and neither has a single approved contract. The rest of the field is warming up as well. The CFTC has already cleared Bitcoin perpetual futures for Kalshi, which has since extended into commodities including copper, and Polymarket has pursued crypto perps of its own. The SEC added a temporary innovation exemption framework for tokenized stocks on 17 September.
What a Stock Perp Actually Buys You
A perpetual future tracks an asset’s price and never expires. A trader holds the position for as long as margin and funding requirements are met, which is what separates it from a conventional futures contract that settles on a fixed date.
Point that at a share price and you get the movement and nothing else. No shareholder rights, no dividends, no ownership stake.
The draw is the clock. US equity markets are open around six and a half hours a day, five days a week. A perp market can run 24 hours a day, five days a week, which is the 24/5 exposure Coinbase keeps pointing at. The company has offered the same product to eligible non-US traders since March. Bringing it onshore was always the harder half.
What to Watch
The question for anyone who might trade these is not whether they arrive but on what terms. Leverage limits, funding rates and margin requirements decide whether a stock perp is a useful hedge or an efficient way to lose money quickly, and none of those numbers exists in public for either exchange.
Until the contracts clear, this is two companies with paperwork and an ambition.
