US Investors Get Crypto-Style Stock Perps at 6.7x Max
Stock perpetual futures, the no-expiry contracts that drive crypto derivatives trading, can now list on eligible U.S. exchanges, though the filings show a product built around equity-market hours.
The perpetual futures crypto traders use on offshore exchanges now have a regulated path onto U.S. stocks, but that version runs on equity-market hours with much tighter leverage.
Key Takeaways
- U.S. stock perps cap leverage near 6.7x.
- Proposed venues close Friday, reopen Sunday evening.
- Funding runs hourly on Coinbase, daily on Kalshi.
- Coinbase’s existing stock perps are a Bermuda product.
In a November 3 statement, CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said perpetual futures on individual stocks can begin trading on designated contract markets that are also notice-registered with the SEC as national securities exchanges for security futures. Put simply, a venue needs standing with both regulators before it can list them. The contracts were deemed approved under CFTC Regulation 40.3, the route an exchange takes when it asks the Commission to approve a new product instead of self-certifying it. The statement names no launch venue and no stock.
For crypto traders, the useful question is how much of the perp they already know survives the move onshore. Two exchange proposals filed on September 18, one of them from Coinbase Derivatives, answer most of it.
What carries over from crypto perps
The core mechanics are familiar. There is no expiry date and no roll into a new contract month. Funding payments between longs and shorts keep the contract near its reference price: in the standard design, longs pay shorts when the perp trades at a premium to that price, and shorts pay longs when it trades at a discount. As on any crypto venue, holding a crowded long can mean paying funding period after period, so the absence of an expiry says nothing about the cost of staying in.
What changes is everything around the contract. The Coinbase Derivatives rule notice published in the Federal Register describes contracts that convey no ownership of the underlying stock, so a long holder gets no shares and no vote. Corporate events reach the position through the contract terms instead. Coinbase’s proposed rules expect ordinary cash dividends to be reflected through market pricing and funding, while stock splits and exceptional events can trigger contract adjustments. Crypto perps have no equivalent, because a token pays no dividend and rarely splits.
A trading week, not a 24/7 market
The biggest adjustment for anyone used to crypto is the calendar. Bitcoin perps react to Saturday news on Saturday. Both stock perp proposals shut on Friday afternoon and reopen on Sunday evening, so weekend headlines reach these contracts hours before the stock market opens on Monday, though not as they break.
Funding is where the two designs split, and an earnings night shows how. A company reports after the 4 p.m. close, and both perps can keep trading into the evening while the stock’s regular session is shut. Under Kalshi’s proposal, any premium that builds during those hours stays out of the funding calculation, because premiums are sampled only in the regular equity session. Coinbase ties its funding pauses to its own contract market, not to the stock market’s hours.
Crypto traders read funding as a live signal of crowding. On a stock perp, that signal depends on two details in the final contract terms: which price stands in for the stock while its regular session is closed, and whether the evening premium counts at all. The same stock could cost different amounts to hold overnight depending on the venue.
Leverage in single digits
The general margin requirement for security futures is 15% of a position’s current market value, which works out to a ceiling of roughly 6.7 times the collateral. That sits far below the multiples crypto traders find on offshore perp venues. Kalshi’s proposal sets its minimum at 15.5%, about 6.5 times, and exchanges and intermediaries can require more. Offsetting positions can qualify for different treatment.
Hypothetical position at the 15% minimum, before funding and fees
- Contract value: $10,000
- Margin posted: $1,500
- Contract price moves 5% against the position
- Loss: $500, about a third of the margin
Lower leverage does not make single stocks gentle. Earnings days routinely produce moves of that size, and funding and fees come on top. A margin call or forced liquidation can hit well before the collateral is gone, which leaves less room than the lower multiple suggests.
Coinbase now has two kinds of stock perps
Coinbase already sells stock perpetuals, but its derivatives page lists that offering as a Coinbase Bermuda product for eligible jurisdictions. The November 3 statement applies to U.S. exchanges registered with both regulators, which is where Coinbase Derivatives filed its proposal. The offshore product and a U.S. listing carry the same brand but sit under different entities, rules and customer eligibility, so the entity named in the account agreement matters more than the logo on the app.
Hyperliquid’s U.S. door stays separate
The same line runs through Hyperliquid. Its proposed U.S. route depends on approved accounts at a regulated intermediary, and ICE’s planned U.S. market for Hyperliquid perps was reported as pending approval. The CFTC statement names neither plan, and it opens no new access for U.S. customers to markets already trading on Hyperliquid.
A broker account replaces the exchange wallet
On an offshore crypto venue, collateral sits under that venue’s own terms and home jurisdiction. Onshore, the account rules for security futures let an intermediary carry positions in either a futures account or a securities account. Collateral in a futures account falls under the Commodity Exchange Act’s segregation requirements, while a securities account follows the customer protection rules of securities law.
The broker has to tell the customer which structure applies. For traders who lived through offshore exchange collapses, that disclosure answers the question those failures made painful: under which rules the money is held if the firm goes under.
Wall Street’s objection is the overnight session
The day before the announcement, SIFMA asked regulators to allow further review of equity perpetuals. The securities industry association pointed to trading during less liquid periods, the risk of cross-market manipulation, possible effects on the underlying stocks and open questions over how the products are classified.
Those concerns land on the same evening hours crypto traders would see as the product’s main draw. A thin market after the close can move a perp without a matching move in the stock, and surveillance has to connect activity across markets run by different operators. The letter sets out the industry’s position and leaves the approval in place.
Confirmation that these contracts are live requires a venue listing notice naming specific stocks, a launch date and final funding terms. Until one appears, the September proposals remain the best guide to how a crypto-style perp behaves under U.S. stock-market rules, and the overnight session SIFMA flagged is the part of that design with the most to prove.
Kosta has reported on cryptocurrency markets and blockchain infrastructure since 2020, bringing over six years of hands-on experience in the crypto industry built through daily tracking of markets, trends, and emerging blockchain developments. Specializing in Bitcoin on-chain analysis, institutional ETF flows, and digital asset price action, his work at Coindoo has been cited by other news agencies and consistently covers market developments with a focus on data-driven reporting across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. Over the years, Kosta has contributed to multiple crypto media outlets in different regions, authoring over 6,000 articles across the sector. His reporting spans cryptocurrency markets and the broader fintech industry, tracking not only price action but also the technological and regulatory forces shaping the ecosystem. To support his analysis, Kosta actively leverages on-chain data and metrics from leading platforms such as Santiment, Glassnode, and CryptoQuant, enabling deeper, evidence-based market insights. He believes in the power of transparency and the data that underpins the blockchain ecosystem. His academic background in Marketing Management from Denmark further complements his analytical approach, adding a strong understanding of communication strategy and content positioning to his work.
