CFTC clears never-expiring futures on individual stocks to trade on US exchanges for the first time, under joint watch with the SEC

Perpetual futures, contracts that never expire and are often traded with leverage, can now be offered on individual US stocks on CFTC-registered exchanges, CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said in a statement on Tuesday. The venues must be designated contract markets that are also notice-registered with the SEC as national securities exchanges for security futures, according to the statement.

Stock-based derivatives fall under both securities and commodities law, which CoinDesk says is why equity perps had been held back. The CFTC deemed them approved as security futures products under the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, a framework with joint SEC and CFTC oversight. Selig wrote that the step gives US traders a regulated option "rather than being forced to turn to offshore, and often unregulated, venues." He pointed to a memorandum of understanding the two agencies signed on March 11, 2026, and to the CFTC's May 29, 2026 approval of KalshiEX's BTCPERP, which he described as the first true bitcoin perpetual futures contract on a CFTC-regulated exchange.

Perps are widely used in crypto. DeFiLlama data cited by CoinDesk shows more than $630 billion of perps trading volume in the past month, and Hyperliquid has become a major venue for leveraged onchain trading. Last week NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange invested in Trade[XYZ], which builds perps markets on Hyperliquid, CoinDesk notes.

The statement does not say which exchanges will list equity perps or which stocks will be offered at launch.