Perpetual futures ate crypto trading over the last decade, and on Tuesday the format finally got a US passport. The CFTC equity perpetual futures clearance landed November 3, when Chairman Michael S. Selig released a statement confirming that perpetual futures on individual US stocks can now trade for the first time on CFTC-registered exchanges. Four years of watching the product thrive offshore, and the onshore version opened with a familiar crypto flourish.
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What the CFTC equity perpetual futures approval actually covers
Selig’s statement says the contracts were “deemed approved” by the Commission under Regulation 40.3, classified as security futures products under the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. That route matters: no new legislation was required. The oversight is shared between the CFTC and the SEC, and listing is restricted to designated contract markets that are dually registered with the SEC as notice-registered national securities exchanges authorized to trade security futures products.
The decision follows the CFTC-SEC memorandum of understanding signed March 11, and it arrives one day after a midterm election that flipped control of Congress – timing that is either shrewd or accidental, depending on who you ask.
Kalshi goes first with four household names
Kalshi did not wait for a formal commissioning ceremony. The exchange launched single-stock perpetual futures tied to Amgen, McDonald’s, Qualcomm and Costco on November 3, with Coinbase and Bitnomial reported as the next in line. The offshore benchmark is impossible to ignore: Hyperliquid’s on-chain stock perps built the template, its policy center lobbied for the security futures classification, and the venue still geoblocks US residents – which is precisely the gap US exchanges are now racing to fill.
Funding rates instead of roll dates
The mechanics will read like deja vu for anyone who has traded crypto. Equity perps never expire. Instead of quarterly rollovers, periodic funding rates – typically every few hours – keep contract prices anchored to the underlying stock’s spot price. Selig framed the move as giving US traders a regulated, onshore alternative to “offshore, and often unregulated, venues,” effectively extending a crypto-native trading model to Wall Street.
The lawsuit already in the wings
The approval is not unchallenged. The Capital Markets Alliance is reported to face – and reportedly plans – legal challenge over the decision, with the potential to overturn the approval. The docket status was not confirmed in primary sources, so treat this as a live story rather than settled law. Past experience says the first court test arrives faster than the first record trading day.
What to watch next
Three signals will tell you whether equity perps become a market or a novelty: Coinbase and Bitnomial listing dates, the trajectory of the legal challenge, and – with Democrats now holding both chambers of Congress – whether the new Congress treats crypto-style derivatives as innovation worth protecting or risk worth reining in. Kalshi’s first four stocks are the opening bell either way.
Source: CFTC Press Release 9319-26 and Chairman Selig’s Statement on Equity Perpetual Futures, November 3, 2026; exchange-level listing details from secondary reporting.
