Kalshi and Coinbase have separately moved to introduce perpetual contracts tied to individual U.S. stocks, bringing one of crypto’s most widely used derivatives formats closer to regulated American equity markets. Both proposals remain subject to regulatory approval, but their arrival on the same day places pressure on U.S. market rules built around fixed-expiry futures, options, and conventional share trading.
Kalshi’s proposal would list perpetual contracts linked to U.S. single stocks through a structure that has no preset expiration date. Rather than settling on a monthly or quarterly schedule, the contracts would use periodic funding payments between long and short positions to keep the derivative’s price aligned with the underlying stock.
The company said the products would be cleared through KalshiKlear, its Commodity Futures Trading Commission-registered clearinghouse. Kalshi also submitted a proposed rule change to the Securities and Exchange Commission, while its product proposal awaits CFTC approval.
Coinbase filed a similar proposal for U.S. single-stock perpetual products, adding another major venue to the race to package equity exposure in a format familiar to cryptocurrency derivatives traders. The parallel filings reflect growing interest in instruments that can provide synthetic stock exposure around the clock and without the forced contract rollovers associated with traditional futures.
Perpetuals move toward regulated stock exposure
Perpetual futures, often called “perps,” are derivatives designed to track an underlying asset without an expiry date. Funding rates—payments exchanged between traders holding bullish and bearish positions—are intended to discourage the contract from moving too far above or below the reference price.
The model has become central to crypto derivatives markets, where traders commonly use perpetual contracts to gain exposure to bitcoin, ethereum and smaller tokens. Applying it to U.S. equities would create a regulatory challenge because stock-linked contracts sit near the boundary between securities oversight and commodities derivatives rules.
Kalshi’s dual engagement with the CFTC and SEC reflects that divide. The CFTC oversees many derivatives markets and clearing arrangements, while the SEC regulates securities markets and products tied directly to shares. The companies will need regulators to determine how single-stock perpetuals fit within existing investor-protection, margin, surveillance and market-integrity frameworks.
The filings arrive as tokenized equity products and other crypto-adjacent forms of stock exposure have proliferated outside conventional U.S. exchanges. Those products have raised recurring questions over whether buyers hold the underlying shares, receive shareholder rights, or merely gain contractual exposure to their price.
A separate disclosure in the supplied material underscored the distinction. Paimon finance’s pPOLY was described as tokenized exposure to a related special purpose vehicle rather than an official Polymarket token or direct ownership of Polymarket equity. Such structures can give traders economic exposure while leaving ownership, governance and redemption rights sharply different from those attached to an ordinary share.
Approval process will shape product design
The practical details of the Kalshi and Coinbase proposals will matter as much as the perpetual format itself. Regulators may scrutinize the reference prices used for settlement, the timing and calculation of funding payments, position limits, margin requirements, protections against manipulation, and the treatment of corporate actions such as dividends, splits, mergers and trading halts.
Single-stock derivatives can become especially complex when an underlying company reports earnings or experiences sudden news-driven volatility. A perpetual contract that trades continuously would need procedures for periods when the U.S. stock market is closed, when a stock is halted, or when the underlying price moves sharply outside regular hours.
Clearing through KalshiKlear would place collateral management and default procedures inside a registered clearing structure, rather than leaving those functions entirely to an offshore trading venue. That could give regulators a more direct view of margins and outstanding positions, though approval would not eliminate the risks of leverage inherent in derivatives trading.
The filings also arrive during a mixed market session for digital assets and crypto-linked equities. HYPE traded at 94.35 USDT after moving above 94 USDT, according to the market figures provided, marking a 9.33% gain over 24 hours. NEAR was also among the strongest large-cap movers, while bitcoin was modestly lower.
Crypto-related U.S. shares rose more sharply in the same market snapshot. Microstrategy, trading under MSTR, gained 16.39%, while Coinbase rose 11.66% and Robinhood climbed 9.12%. Those moves came as the Nasdaq closed 0.39% higher and the S&P 500 added 0.16%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.19%.
Vietnam prepares a regulated market pilot
Elsewhere, Vietnam is preparing to issue its first crypto-asset service-provider licenses in 2026 under a pilot legal framework. Vietnam’s finance ministry said vice minister Nguyen Duc Chi met with an executive director of Austria’s financial market authority on Sept. 15 to discuss cooperation on risk management, customer-asset protection and anti-money-laundering controls.
The ministry said the two sides planned to coordinate through the International Organization of Securities Commissions, or IOSCO. Vietnam’s planned licensing regime would place formal compliance expectations around a market that has operated largely without a comprehensive domestic framework.
The policy direction contrasts with blanket claims that regulated markets will necessarily force participants to abandon established platforms or move assets immediately. The details of Vietnam’s licensing rules, custody standards and treatment of foreign providers will determine the practical impact once the pilot is implemented.
Macro pressure remains in view
Minneapolis Federal Reserve president Neel Kashkari said inflation remains too high and is not explained solely by oil prices, reiterating that the Fed’s task is to return inflation to its 2% target. His remarks preserve the cautious monetary backdrop facing risk assets, including cryptocurrencies and highly leveraged derivatives products.
Standard Chartered also published a long-range forecast for Arbitrum’s ARB token, projecting a path to $10 by the end of 2030. The bank set interim targets of $0.50 for 2026, $1.50 for 2027, $3.50 for 2028 and $6.50 for 2029, while identifying slower tokenization progress and limited direct value capture for ARB as risks.
Circle, meanwhile, launched an agent-payments feature for its Arc chain through the x402 protocol and facilitator service. Circle said developers can accept USDC and settle transactions across Arc, Base and Polygon without maintaining relayer keys or a separate gas-fee wallet, extending stablecoin payment infrastructure into automated software-agent workflows.
Curious how tokenized stocks could reshape trading? Explore what are tokenized equities and how do they work in our in-depth guide.
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