The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has granted permission for American exchanges to provide perpetual futures contracts linked to individual equities, following closely on the heels of President Donald Trump bringing attention to these assets.
During Tuesday’s session, CFTC Chair Michael Selig authorized platforms to facilitate the trading of such perpetual futures contracts in the United States for the very first time.
“This development represents an important milestone in enabling U.S. market participants, in alignment with existing regulations, to leverage the benefits of perpetual futures that have established them as highly desired instruments for price discovery and risk management,” Selig stated.
Perpetuals, commonly known as perps, represent a category of futures contract lacking any expiration date, enabling individuals to speculate on asset price fluctuations without possessing the underlying property.
The demand for perpetual futures contracts escalated substantially over the preceding year, notably following international supply chain interruptions in the Middle East earlier in the year when conflict broke out after American and Israeli missile attacks against Iran caused significant supply disruptions. Because those events occurred over the weekend while standard oil futures markets remained shut, protocols like Hyperliquid functioning continuously around the clock absorbed a massive share of the onchain trading volume.
Throughout the past year, the CFTC has sanctioned a small selection of perpetual futures contracts. The regulatory body initially paved the way for bitcoin perpetual futures contracts domestically when officials permitted Coinbase and KalshiEX to offer the instruments. Subsequently, in June, the commission issued a call for public comments regarding crude oil perpetual contracts alongside round-the-clock trading.
Perpetual futures instruments have likewise drawn the interest of Trump. Back in August, he expressed his desire for the CFTC to facilitate the entry of Hyperliquid into the United States market.
According to Selig’s remarks on Tuesday, both the SEC and the CFTC will share oversight responsibilities for these agreements.
“This regulatory structure acknowledges the joint responsibilities of the SEC and the CFTC in supervising American financial markets by establishing a clear avenue for modernization where U.S. jurisdictions overlap,” Selig explained.
Originally published at https://www.theblock.co/news/regulation/2026-11-03-cftc-approves-individual-stock-perpetual-futures-trading-in-us-for-first-time-432422.
