CFTC clears equity perpetual futures for US regulated exchanges

Perpetual futures on individual US stocks can now trade on regulated US exchanges for the first time, after the contracts were deemed approved as security futures products, CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said on November 3.

Why it matters: Equity perpetuals have until now been an offshore product; bringing them onshore puts a leveraged, never-expiring stock derivative inside joint CFTC and SEC oversight, and extends the perpetual format from crypto into mainstream equities.

Data as of CFTC statement and press release 9319-26 of November 3, 2026, both read in full in this run. The statement names no listing venue for the equity contracts. Developing item.

Perpetual futures contracts on individual equity securities can begin trading on CFTC-registered exchanges for the first time, Chairman Michael Selig announced on November 3. The contracts, known as Equity Perps, were deemed approved under Commission Regulation 40.3 as security futures products under the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, and can be listed by designated contract markets that are also registered with the SEC as notice-registered national securities exchanges for security futures.

Selig said the products are widely used for risk management and price discovery and that US investors should not be forced to turn to offshore, often unregulated venues to trade them. The clearance builds on a CFTC and SEC memorandum of understanding signed in March and follows the approval earlier this year of the first bitcoin perpetual futures contract on a CFTC-regulated exchange.

CFTC clears equity perpetual futures for US regulated exchanges

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