Equity Perpetual Futures Get First US Trading Green Light

The CFTC cleared equity perpetual futures on individual stocks for US trading for the first time, ending the jurisdictional deadlock that had kept the no-expiry derivatives offshore. In release 9319-26, dated November 3, 2026, Chairman Michael S. Selig said perpetual contracts on single equities can now begin listing on designated contract markets that are dually registered with the SEC as notice-registered national securities exchanges to trade security futures products.

The product at issue is a perpetual future on a single equity: a leveraged contract tied to one stock's price with no fixed expiration, so positions roll rather than settle to a calendar date. That structure is common in crypto derivatives, where perpetuals dominate most retail volume, but for individual US equities it previously had no onshore listing venue. Selig framed the change as keeping American investors and traders inside the CFTC's regulated perimeter rather than, in his words, being "forced to turn to offshore, and often unregulated, venues."

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Read narrowly, the announcement is a supply-side change to what US participants can trade. Any designated contract market that also holds the SEC registration the statement describes can now self-certify and list an equity perp under CFTC oversight, for the first time. The release does not itself launch a contract; it removes the regulatory barrier to listing one. Before Tuesday, a US trader who wanted that exposure largely had to reach an offshore venue operating outside US oversight, with the credit and custody risks that go with it.

The timing completes a deliberate onshoring sequence. On October 5 the CFTC issued a no-action letter, release 9308-26, addressing perpetual-style broad-based security index futures, and earlier in 2026 it cleared digital-asset perpetuals. Today's statement is the third step toward bringing a derivatives structure, whose demand matured in offshore crypto markets, inside the US framework. Selig described the two agencies as turning the page on what he said SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins had aptly called a regulatory "no man's land," and he cited both the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 and the CFTC-SEC Memorandum of Understanding as the foundation the Equity Perps build on.

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The competitive effects split cleanly in two directions. On the demand side, US traders and hedgers gain onshore access under CFTC oversight instead of reaching unregulated offshore venues, which the chairman said the move is designed to encourage "consistent with applicable law." On the supply side, dual-registered exchanges and DCMs gain a new listable product, and the clearing infrastructure gains a new cleared instrument and its margin mechanics. Offshore venues that had hosted equity perps lose a captive US client base that can now stay home, while incumbent listed equity derivatives, exchange-traded options and conventional futures, face a rival that never expires and therefore shifts how the expiry calendar and the roll dynamics of the equity derivatives complex are priced.

The statement carries real limits. It names no launch date and no exchange, so this is an authorization, not a listing. Turning the green light into a tradable contract still requires a venue to act: a DCM would file a product self-certification, or an exchange a rule change, and both agencies' regimes for security futures products will govern how the contracts are margined, cleared, and reported. Nothing in the release changes what US investors can buy today; it changes the menu of what a qualified venue is permitted to list in the future.

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The open item to watch is the first filing. The CFTC's industry filing list and the SEC's rule docket are the places where the next event shows up: a first DCM self-certification for an equity perp, or an exchange listing notice, would convert this legal clearance into a quoted contract with a real price. Until then the relevant numbers are regulatory dates rather than market levels, and the one everyone should track is whenever the first exchange or designated contract market steps forward to name a product and a start date.

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