Three U.S.-regulated platforms — Coinbase, Kalshi, and Payward (Kraken's parent) — filed with the CFTC in the same week to list perpetual futures on individual U.S. stocks. The filings, submitted between September 16 and September 18, 2026, cover roughly 50–60 large-cap equities including Apple, ...
"Time to bring stock perps onshore." — Brian Armstrong, CEO, Coinbase
Three U.S.-regulated platforms — Coinbase, Kalshi, and Payward (Kraken's parent) — filed with the CFTC in the same week to list perpetual futures on individual U.S. stocks. The filings, submitted between September 16 and September 18, 2026, cover roughly 50–60 large-cap equities including Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, and Nvidia, and would offer 24/5 leveraged exposure without share ownership or contract expiration.
The race marks the first attempt to apply crypto-native perpetual futures mechanics — born offshore and historically beyond U.S. regulatory reach — to regulated equity markets. COIN stock rose 18% over two sessions on the news. None of the proposed products has received CFTC clearance. CME Group's pending lawsuit against the CFTC over perpetual futures classification adds a layer of legal uncertainty to the timeline.
Coinbase Derivatives filed with the CFTC on September 18 to list single-stock perpetual futures on approximately 50–60 U.S. equities. Apple (AAPL) serves as the representative contract in the filing. The company had previously filed SEC Form 1-N on September 1 to register as a national securities exchange, and Coinbase Financial Markets filed Form BD-N the same day as a security futures broker-dealer. Both registrations are prerequisites for offering security futures products.
KalshiEX submitted separate filings for perpetual futures on AAPL, TSLA, MSFT, NVDA, AMZN, SPY, and QQQ, among other equity-linked contracts. According to CFTC records, each submission is in "Approval Pending (45)" status. Kalshi's SEC filing indicates a proposed effective date of November 2, 2026, subject to CFTC clearance. Clearing would flow through Kalshi Klear, its registered clearinghouse.
Payward, Kraken's parent company, announced on September 16 plans to deploy perpetual futures on 10 U.S. equities — Tesla, Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Broadcom, Micron, Palantir, and Sempra — through Bitnomial Exchange, its CFTC-regulated designated contract market. In a distinct architectural choice, Payward intends to use Hyperliquid's HIP-3 permissioned perpetual markets protocol for on-chain order matching and settlement, making Bitnomial the first regulated deployer on a public blockchain order book. NinjaTrader Clearing would carry client accounts.
All three filings remain pending. No launch dates have been confirmed.
Perpetual futures referencing individual equities function identically to crypto perpetual futures: they track the price of an underlying stock without expiration, using a periodic funding rate to anchor the contract price to the cash market.
Key specifications drawn from the filings:
| Feature | Coinbase | Kalshi | Payward | |---|---|---|---| | Underlying assets | ~50–60 equities | 7+ stocks/ETFs | 10 equities | | Trading hours | Sun 8pm–Fri 5pm ET (24/5) | 24/5 | 24/5 (target) | | Settlement | Cash-settled | Cash-settled | On-chain (Hyperliquid) | | Funding rate | Max ±0.10%/hr, hourly snapshots | Hourly adjustments | Not disclosed | | Margin | ~15.5% (~6x leverage) | ~15.5% (~6x leverage) | Not disclosed | | Expiration | None | None | None |
Coinbase's reference index updates every second using institutional market data feeds across pre-market, regular, after-hours, and overnight sessions. The maximum funding rate of ±0.10% per hour, calculated from price snapshots taken every three minutes, provides the arbitrage incentive that keeps the contract tethered to the underlying stock price.
The absence of expiration eliminates roll costs — a friction that traditional futures traders absorb quarterly. Traders can maintain long or short positions indefinitely, provided margin requirements are met.
Single-stock perpetual futures sit at the intersection of two regulatory regimes. Because each contract references an individual security, it qualifies as a "security futures product" under the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, triggering joint CFTC and SEC oversight.
The dual-agency requirement explains the two-step filing process visible in the Coinbase and Kalshi submissions. Each platform filed with the SEC first (Form 1-N for exchange registration, Form BD-N for broker-dealer registration) before submitting product specifications to the CFTC. Payward's Bitnomial Exchange already holds a CFTC-registered DCM license, acquired through Payward's earlier acquisition of Bitnomial.
The CFTC's May 29, 2026, policy statement on perpetual contracts established that non-crypto perpetual products require affirmative Commission approval under Regulation 40.3 — exchanges cannot self-certify them. This means every stock perpetual must go through the full 45-day review process. As of September 20, all three sets of filings show "Approval Pending" status in CFTC databases.
The regulatory groundwork for onshore perpetual futures was laid across three coordinated CFTC actions on May 29, 2026:
Kalshi Bitcoin Approval. The CFTC approved KalshiEX's BTCPERP contract — a cash-settled perpetual referencing the spot price of Bitcoin — marking the first perpetual futures product approved on a U.S.-regulated exchange.
Policy Statement. Simultaneously, the Commission issued a formal policy statement classifying perpetual contracts as futures (not swaps), and requiring case-by-case approval under Regulation 40.3 for non-crypto underliers.
Coinbase No-Action Letter. The CFTC permitted Coinbase Financial Markets to post digital assets — including Bitcoin, Ether, and stablecoins — as margin collateral for perpetual futures products.
An earlier joint SEC-CFTC guidance issued in March 2026 classified most major crypto assets as digital commodities rather than securities, establishing the CFTC as the primary crypto derivatives regulator. That classification framework now intersects with the stock perpetuals filings, where the underlying assets are unambiguously securities, creating the dual-agency dynamic described above.
Coinbase already operates 146 assets on its derivatives platform. Kraken launched regulated U.S. perpetual futures on Kraken Pro in June 2026, shortly after the CFTC framework took effect.
CME Group, the world's largest derivatives exchange, filed suit against the CFTC in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on June 18, 2026, challenging both the Kalshi approval order and the perpetual contracts policy statement. CME argued the CFTC's classification of perpetuals as futures — rather than swaps — violates the Commodity Exchange Act and is "arbitrary and capricious" under the Administrative Procedure Act.
The CFTC moved to dismiss on September 2, calling the case "much ado about nothing." The agency noted that the approval order permits any registered DCM, including CME, to list similarly structured products, and that CME has publicly stated its customers have not requested perpetual futures. The CFTC characterized any competitive harm as "self-inflicted."
CME's opposition brief is due October 2. A ruling in CME's favor could invalidate the regulatory foundation on which all three stock perpetual filings rest. The case adds material uncertainty to timelines, though legal observers note that courts generally defer to agency classifications of novel financial instruments.
The economic logic driving these filings is straightforward: perpetual futures already dominate global crypto derivatives trading, and the format is migrating to traditional asset classes — but almost entirely offshore.
Global crypto perpetual futures volume reached approximately $61.7 trillion in 2025, according to Coinglass and Datawallet data, with over 90% flowing through offshore venues (Binance, Bybit, OKX). Daily volume has approached $750 billion. Perpetuals drive 78% of crypto derivatives volume.
The format is already extending beyond crypto. From February through August 2026, cumulative trading volume in perpetual futures linked to Korean equities reached KRW 307 trillion (approximately $230 billion), according to Tiger Research. In August alone, perpetuals linked to KORU — a 3x leveraged Korea ETF — recorded $24.1 billion in volume, nearly triple the ETF's own $8.9 billion. This Korean equity perps market grew to nearly four times the volume of Korea's five largest domestic crypto exchanges over the same period.
Wall Street's share of crypto perpetual futures trading has risen from 0.5% to 23% since the CFTC framework took effect, according to CME Group reporting. The stock perpetuals filings represent the next logical step: applying the same instrument to U.S. equities, where market hours and roll costs create structural demand for 24/5 non-expiring exposure.
COIN stock closed at $194.25 on September 19, up 11.66% on the session after reaching an intraday high of $196.20. Volume hit approximately 21.4 million shares. Combined with a 5.75% gain on September 18, the two-session advance totaled roughly 18%.
Bitcoin traded above $81,000 during the same session before settling around $80,882, up nearly 6%. The correlation between COIN's move and the filing was reinforced by analyst commentary attributing the stock's outperformance to the derivatives expansion rather than the broader crypto market rally.
The market reaction reflects investor expectations that stock perpetual futures, if approved, would materially expand Coinbase's addressable market beyond crypto-native assets. Coinbase previously launched international stock perpetuals in March 2026 for non-U.S. customers.
The simultaneous filings by Coinbase, Kalshi, and Payward represent the convergence of two previously separate market structures: crypto-native perpetual futures and regulated U.S. equity derivatives. The instrument's offshore adoption — $61.7 trillion in crypto, $230 billion in Korean stocks — demonstrates demand. The question is regulatory: whether the CFTC's 45-day review process, complicated by the CME lawsuit and dual SEC oversight, can deliver approvals before market momentum shifts.
If cleared, stock perpetuals would give U.S. retail and institutional traders 24/5 leveraged equity exposure without share ownership, roll costs, or expiration management — a product that currently does not exist on any U.S. regulated venue. If blocked, the volume will continue to flow offshore.
The next milestone is October 2, when CME files its opposition brief. Kalshi's proposed effective date of November 2 provides the earliest potential timeline for a live product.