CFTC Allows Perpetual Futures on Individual Stocks
U.S. derivatives regulators have permitted perpetual futures on individual stocks, bringing popular crypto trading tools into traditional equity markets.
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The United States derivatives regulator has opened the door to perpetual futures on individual stocks, importing one of the most popular trading instruments from the digital asset sector into traditional equity markets for the first time. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced that equity perpetual futures, which are perpetual contracts tied to individual company shares, can now begin trading on exchanges registered with the agency.
Perpetual futures have long served as a staple of digital asset markets. These derivatives track an asset price without carrying any expiration date, allowing participants to maintain leveraged positions indefinitely as long as they meet required funding and margin conditions. Until this regulatory shift, such instruments remained largely inaccessible to traders within the United States. Chairman Michael Selig framed the policy change as a continuation of efforts to bring perpetual products onshore under established federal oversight.
Regulated U.S. exchanges now offer stock perpetual futures to protect traders.
“In my inaugural remarks, I directed the CFTC to use the tools at its disposal to onshore perpetual derivative products so that they can flourish in the U.S., subject to appropriate safeguards,” Selig stated. He described the new stock contracts as a direct extension of the agency's previous approval allowing the first true digital asset perpetual futures on a regulated domestic platform, which cleared for Kalshi earlier in the year.
Selig emphasized that established domestic venues provide better security than offshore alternatives. Bringing these financial instruments into regulated markets ensures that American investors can access them within the protections of the agency's regulatory framework rather than turning to overseas platforms that often lack oversight. This development follows recent federal actions regarding digital asset exchanges and proposals to list single-stock products on major corporate names including Apple, Tesla and Nvidia.
Understanding CFTC Regulations and Oversight
The approved equity perpetuals were categorized as security futures products under the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. This classification places them under the shared supervision of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Selig attributed this resolution of past jurisdictional ambiguity to a memorandum of understanding signed earlier in the year by both agencies, ending a regulatory deadlock that previously affected such financial instruments.
Why it matters
Chairman Michael Selig said equity perpetual futures can now trade on CFTC-registered exchanges, extending a crypto-native instrument to traditional stocks. This regulatory shift introduces leveraged, expiration-free derivative contracts to standard equity trading under federal supervision.