The CFTC has cleared the way for perpetual futures tied to individual stocks to trade on registered US exchanges for the first time — bringing the crypto market’s most popular trading structure to Wall Street.
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig (Credits: CoinDesk)
CFTC Clears Perpetual Futures on Stocks: What the Decision Says
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said Tuesday that the contracts — dubbed “Equity Perps” — were deemed approved under existing security futures rules. Because they are classified as security futures, they will fall under joint oversight of the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission, using a framework established by the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000.
Only venues that are both CFTC-registered designated contract markets and SEC-registered national securities exchanges for security futures products can list them, according to CoinDesk. Selig’s statement did not identify which exchanges would offer the contracts, which stocks would be covered, or when trading would begin.
Equity Perps: How Stock Perpetual Futures Work
Perpetual futures never expire — instead of settling on a fixed date, traders exchange periodic funding payments that keep the contract price tied to the underlying asset. Until now, Americans had to seek out offshore, often unregulated venues to trade them.
Details from exchange filings paint a picture of what is coming. Kalshi, one of the exchanges that filed to list the contracts, proposed 58 contracts covering 55 stocks — including Apple, Tesla, Nvidia and Microsoft — plus two funds tracking the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100. Trading would run from Sunday evening to Friday afternoon, US Eastern time, with holders getting price exposure only: no shares, no dividends, no voting rights.
The catch, as watchdog group Better Markets warned, is leverage: Kalshi’s filing lets traders hold a position by posting just 15.5% of its value, and such positions liquidate automatically in steep sell-offs.
From Bitcoin Perps to Stock Perps
The decision extends the CFTC’s May approval of the first US-listed bitcoin perpetual futures contract, and fits a broader Trump administration push to bring crypto-style trading products onshore. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump said at a White House meeting that the CFTC is working to bring Hyperliquid — the platform that helped popularize onchain perps — into the US under federal rules. Intercontinental Exchange, the NYSE’s parent, recently invested in tradeXYZ, a builder of perpetual futures markets on Hyperliquid.
Also Read: Bitcoin Is Breaking a Midterm Election Pattern Going Back to 2014
Source: CoinDesk — read the full story there.