The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has cleared domestic exchanges and other platforms to offer perpetual futures tied to individual stocks, opening a regulated U.S. market for contracts that let traders maintain exposure to a companys share price without a preset expiration date.
CFTC Chair Michael Selig approved the action on Tuesday, according to the agency. The decision extends a contract format widely used in cryptocurrency markets to single-name equities, placing a product associated with round-the-clock digital-asset trading inside a supervisory structure shared by the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Perpetual futures, commonly called perps, allow traders to take long or short positions on an assets price without directly holding the underlying asset. Unlike conventional futures, they do not expire on a fixed monthly or quarterly schedule. Applied to stocks, the structure could give traders a way to maintain a directional position on a company beyond the time limits built into listed options and traditional futures contracts.
CFTC and SEC will share oversight
Selig said the framework defines responsibilities for both the CFTC and the SEC in supervising stock-linked perpetual futures. The arrangement reflects the products unusual position between markets traditionally overseen by the two agencies: the reference asset is a security, while the contract itself uses a futures-style structure.
The CFTCs approval does not turn stock perps into ordinary share trading. Traders would be taking positions on the price movement of a named company rather than acquiring voting rights, dividends, or direct ownership of its stock. That distinction will matter for participants accustomed to buying equities through brokerage accounts and for platforms designing disclosures, margin policies, and market-surveillance systems.
Single-stock derivatives have long drawn regulatory attention because sharp moves in individual companies can amplify losses when trading is leveraged. Perpetual contracts add another consideration: positions can remain open indefinitely, rather than being closed or rolled forward at a contracts expiry. The agencies joint model will therefore face its first major test in setting rules that accommodate continuous-price products without importing the lighter-risk assumptions often associated with offshore crypto venues.
A crypto-market structure enters equities
Perpetual futures became a defining product in digital-asset markets because they allow trading to continue without the expiry cycles used in conventional futures. Their growth has been especially visible during periods when major news breaks outside regular market hours.
Earlier this year, conflict in the Middle East followed U.S. and Israeli missile strikes on Iran and contributed to supply concerns while standard oil-futures venues were closed for the weekend. Onchain platforms operating continuously, including Hyperliquid, offered traders a venue to react while traditional markets were unavailable.
That contrast has helped make 24/7 derivatives trading a policy issue in Washington. The CFTC in June requested public comment on crude-oil perpetual contracts and around-the-clock trading, signaling that the agency was examining whether a format developed in crypto could be used for commodities with established regulated futures markets.
The commission had already permitted more limited U.S. perpetual-futures offerings. CFTC staff previously allowed KalshiEX and Coinbase to list bitcoin perpetual futures contracts, according to the agencys earlier actions. The move into individual equities is more consequential because it expands the potential universe of reference assets from a small number of digital tokens to publicly traded companies across the U.S. stock market.
Platforms gain a route to compete on trading hours
The approval gives U.S. venues a regulated route to offer a product type that has largely been associated with offshore platforms and crypto-native exchanges. Platforms that can support extended trading hours may use stock perps to serve traders responding to earnings releases, geopolitical developments, or company-specific news outside the core U.S. equity session.
That could pressure brokers, derivatives exchanges, and clearing systems to decide how much of the traditional market timetable should carry into products connected to stocks. A perpetual contract can trade beyond the hours when the underlying shares are changing hands on a national securities exchange, leaving prices to reflect news, related derivatives activity, and participants expectations of where the stock will open.
The resulting market would not necessarily produce the same liquidity or pricing quality available during regular stock-market hours. Thin trading can produce wider gaps between buying and selling prices, particularly in contracts tied to companies facing unexpected news. The CFTC and SEC framework will have to address how exchanges monitor those periods and how they communicate the risks of holding positions through less-liquid sessions.
Political interest preceded the decision
The policy change arrives after President Donald Trump called for the CFTC to help bring Hyperliquid into the U.S. market. In August, Trump said he wanted the agency to work on that objective.
Hyperliquid operates an onchain derivatives venue where perpetual contracts have become central to trading activity. Bringing comparable products into U.S. regulatory channels would give domestic platforms an opportunity to compete for traders seeking continuous access, while subjecting listed contracts to the compliance requirements attached to the CFTCs approval.
The next stage will depend on which exchanges seek to list single-stock perpetuals and how the agencies apply their shared oversight model in practice. The decision creates the regulatory opening, but the markets shape will be determined by listing standards, margin requirements, trading hours, liquidity safeguards, and the willingness of traders to use a new form of exposure to familiar public companies.
Want deeper insight into how these products work? Explore what are perpetuals and how do they work in modern markets.
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