Single-stock perpetual futures can now trade in the US, CFTC chair Selig says

Perpetual futures, the no-expiry contracts that dominate offshore crypto trading, are coming to U.S. stocks. On Nov. 3, 2026, CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said perpetual futures on individual equity securities, the "Equity Perps", "can begin trading for the first time on CFTC-registered exchanges."

Selig framed it as onshoring. Regulated access "ensures that American investors and traders can access these products within the protections of the CFTC's proven regulatory framework, rather than being forced to turn to offshore, and often unregulated, venues," he said.

How the approval works

The contracts were deemed approved under Commission Regulation 40.3 as security futures products under the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, according to the statement. That puts them under the Commodity Exchange Act, U.S. federal securities laws and the frameworks of both the CFTC and the SEC. A footnote limits trading to designated contract markets that are also notice-registered with the SEC as national securities exchanges for security futures.

Selig tied the step to the CFTC-SEC memorandum of understanding signed on March 11, 2026, and to SEC Chairman Paul Atkins' description of a regulatory "no man's land" between the agencies. The statement did not name an exchange, list which stocks the contracts track or say when trading would start, Unchained reported.

Who wants to list them

Perps have no settlement date; a recurring payment between longs and shorts keeps their price close to the underlying asset, Unchained explained. Reuters noted they can involve high leverage, increasing both potential gains and losses. The CFTC first approved a bitcoin perpetual contract, Kalshi's BTCPERP, on May 29, 2026.

Coinbase has filed to list perps on individual U.S. stocks, and Kalshi and Payward's Bitnomial submitted similar proposals in September, according to Unchained; the statement did not say whether those are the contracts now deemed approved. Reuters said the move lets prediction market platforms take another step onto traditional Wall Street firms' territory. The push is contested: CME Group sued the CFTC in June over the bitcoin perp approval, a charge of overreach the regulator rejects.