CFTC Just Opened America’s Stock Market to Perpetual Futures

Perpetual futures carry no expiration date, a structure crypto exchanges popularized for bitcoin and other tokens, letting traders hold leveraged positions indefinitely by rolling funding payments. The CFTC first authorized this contract design onshore for bitcoin in May 2025, before Chairman Michael Selig announced on Tuesday that the same format now extends to individual US stocks. Until this week, equity perpetuals existed only on offshore crypto platforms that American traders accessed outside CFTC and SEC oversight.

Traders gain a regulated US venue for leveraged, no-expiry stock bets that previously required offshore accounts, while exchanges dual-registered with the CFTC and SEC, including those Kraken signaled readiness for with its 'coming soon' response, can now move to list contracts on single-name equities. Retail participants face the same leverage risk that drew scrutiny in crypto markets, since these products allow continuous exposure without the discipline of expiration or standard margin resets. Brokers and exchanges must build compliance frameworks spanning two regulators at once.

Classifying these instruments as 'security futures products' places equity perpetuals under joint CFTC-SEC oversight, a regulatory seam that has already produced friction: CME is fighting the CFTC's bid to dismiss its lawsuit over Kalshi's bitcoin contract, a dispute over who polices crypto-adjacent derivatives. Importing a format built for continuous, offshore crypto trading into equity markets governed by decades of SEC investor-protection rules tests whether those protections survive contact with instruments designed to never settle. Whether the two agencies coordinate or compete will shape how safely leverage reaches retail accounts.

Watch which exchange lists the first equity perpetual contract, with Kraken's 'coming soon' reply the clearest signal of near-term launch, and watch the CME-Kalshi lawsuit over bitcoin contracts still working through the courts, a case that will clarify how far CFTC authority reaches into security-adjacent products. The outcome of that dispute, alongside the first live listings, will determine whether this becomes a broad new asset class or stays confined to a handful of early movers.