Protocols & Policy · Derivatives policy
The CFTC says futures contracts with no expiry date on individual stocks can begin trading on U.S.-registered exchanges from Nov. 3. No exchange has yet announced a contract.
Futures on individual U.S. stocks that never expire can begin trading for the first time on exchanges registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the agency said Tuesday, opening a regulated route for a product its chairman says had pushed Americans to offshore venues [1]. A perpetual future is a futures contract with no expiry date: a position stays open until the trader closes it, rather than settling on a set day.
"Today, perpetual futures contracts on individual equity securities (the 'Equity Perps') can begin trading for the first time on CFTC-registered exchanges," Chairman Michael S. Selig said in a statement released Nov. 3 as CFTC Release No. 9319-26 [1][2].
The contracts were "deemed approved by the Commission, pursuant to Commission Regulation 40.3, as security futures products under the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000," Selig said [2]. "Deemed approved" means the contracts cleared the agency's review process without the commission rejecting them; it is not a new rule or a commission vote. A security futures product is a futures contract on a single stock or a narrow group of stocks, the category Congress placed under both the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
That dual status sets the boundaries. The contracts are "subject to the applicable requirements of the Commodity Exchange Act, the U.S. Federal securities laws, and the regulatory frameworks of both the CFTC and the SEC," the statement says [2]. And "CFTC-registered exchanges" here does not mean every futures market: the release and a footnote to the statement limit it to futures exchanges that are also registered with the SEC to trade security futures [1][2].
The release names no venue or contract, and no exchange has announced one.
Selig frames the move as bringing trading home. Putting these products inside regulated markets means "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 [2]. He cites SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins' description of products like these as stranded in a regulatory "no man's land" between the two agencies [2].
His statement lays out the path that led here:
| Date | Step, as described by the CFTC |
|---|---|
| 2000 | Congress enacts the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, setting up joint CFTC–SEC oversight of security futures [2] |
| Jan. 29, 2026 | Selig's "Project Crypto" remarks say the CFTC will use its tools "to onshore perpetual and other novel derivative products" [4] |
| Mar. 11, 2026 | CFTC and SEC enter into a memorandum of understanding (Release No. 9192-26) [3] |
| Mar. 19, 2026 | Atkins' SEC Speaks remarks, cited by Selig for the "no man's land" phrase [2] |
| May 29, 2026 | CFTC order approving KalshiEX LLC's BTCPERP futures contract, which Selig calls "the first true bitcoin perpetual futures contract" [2] |
| Nov. 3, 2026 | Release No. 9319-26: single-stock perpetual futures can begin trading [1] |
Source: CFTC Release No. 9319-26, Chairman Selig's statement, Nov. 3, 2026; CFTC Release No. 9192-26; Selig remarks, Jan. 29, 2026 [1][2][3][4].
The bitcoin contract in May was the first step, in Selig's telling; Tuesday's action extends the same instrument "beyond digital commodities and into traditional securities" [2].
The offshore market Selig describes already trades stock and commodity contracts of this kind. Over the 24 hours to 6:16 a.m. EST Tuesday, CoinMarketCap tracked $10.0 million in liquidated short positions and $102.7 million in liquidated long positions on non-crypto contracts such as stocks and commodities, on the crypto venues it covers. Those figures cover only the largest entries CoinMarketCap lists, so they are a floor; CoinMarketCap does not separate perpetual from dated contracts, and the figures are unrelated to the CFTC's action. Data: CoinMarketCap [5].
A permission is not a market. Until an exchange that meets the footnote's dual-registration test files and lists a contract, U.S. traders have the legal route but nothing to trade on it. The products also arrive carrying two rulebooks at once, CFTC and SEC, which is the kind of overlap that has slowed single-stock futures in the U.S. before. Whether onshore contracts draw activity away from offshore venues depends on terms the release does not set.
In Le Coin's view, the substance here is jurisdictional, not technical. The CFTC did not invent a new product; it routed a well-known offshore one through a 26-year-old joint framework that both agencies now say they will make work. The detail to watch is the footnote: it decides which exchanges can list these contracts at all, and that list is shorter than "CFTC-registered" suggests.
Holding the Corner.
Not financial advice.