CFTC Takes Historic Steps to Bring Digital Asset Perpetual Contracts Onshore

Background

On May 29, 2026, the CFTC and its staff took a series of coordinated actions to advance the trading of perpetual contracts, including approving for listing on a designated contract market (a “DCM”) a true perpetual contract referencing the spot price of bitcoin as measured by a benchmark real-time index (the “BTCPERP Contract”).

A traditional futures contract¹ is a contract that provides for the purchase of an asset at a specified price for delivery at a specified time. The delivery (or more commonly, the cash settlement in lieu of delivery) of the asset creates an economic incentive that causes the price of the futures contract to converge with the price of the underlying spot asset via pre-expiry arbitrage pressure and also due to the settlement mechanics. Unlike traditional futures contracts, perpetual contracts do not have a contractual expiration date and instead rely on a so-called funding rate payment that is designed to eliminate or minimize any price basis between the contract and the underlying spot asset during the (perpetual) life of the contract.²

Summary of CFTC Actions

1. Chairman Selig Op-Ed: What American Crypto Asset Perpetuals Mean for the Future of Crypto

In an opinion piece published in CoinDesk, CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig called the CFTC’s approval of the BTCPERP Contract (discussed below) “historic” and made the policy case to “onshore crypto asset perpetuals.”³ Selig argued that the CFTC’s prior failure to provide a workable domestic pathway had caused true perpetual trading activity to migrate offshore, fragmenting liquidity, competitively disadvantaging American firms, and effectively barring U.S. participants from these markets. In Selig's words, “the question was never whether crypto asset perpetual contracts would exist” — only “whether they would exist under American oversight, American standards and American rule of law.”

2. CFTC Policy Statement Concerning the Listing of Perpetual Contracts

In connection with the Order (discussed below), the CFTC issued a policy statement (the “Policy Statement”) providing guidance on how perpetual contracts referencing assets other than digital commodities should be submitted for listing on DCMs.⁴ For non-digital assets, such as agricultural products, precious metals, equity securities, and narrow-based security indexes, the CFTC encouraged registrants to voluntarily submit perpetual contracts to the CFTC for review and approval pursuant to CFTC Regulation 40.3 rather than self-certifying pursuant to CFTC Regulation 40.2. The CFTC explained that perpetual contracts have unique characteristics that raise complex questions about market structure, customer protections, and susceptibility to manipulation. Because of these novel features, the CFTC contends that self-certification carries too much risk and that the public interest is better served by a formal review process. The CFTC also acknowledged that prior regulatory uncertainty about the proper classification of perpetuals as futures or swaps caused the market to develop almost entirely offshore, with the majority of trading occurring on non-U.S. platforms. According to the Policy Statement, “[p]rior review promotes transparency, facilitates engagement between [CFTC] staff and registrants during product development, and provides greater regulatory clarity for market participants and members of the public seeking to responsibly innovate within the CFTC’s regulatory framework.”⁵

3. CFTC Contract Approval: First U.S.-Listed Bitcoin Perpetual Contract

The CFTC issued an order (the “Order”) pursuant to CFTC Regulation 40.3 approving the listing of a perpetual contract referencing the spot price of bitcoin as a futures contract by KalshiEX LLC (“Kalshi”), a registered DCM.⁶ The CFTC’s finding that the BTCPERP Contract may be listed as a futures contract pursuant to the Commodity Exchange Act was informed by the funding rate mechanism employed by the BTCPERP Contract as well as the analysis provided by Kalshi in its voluntary product submission. The CFTC noted that the categorization of contracts is made on a case-by-case basis, and that its analysis in the order extends only to perpetual contracts that reference other digital commodities⁷ that have “deep, active, and continuous spot market trading.” The CFTC indicated in the order that it expects to address the regulatory treatment of perpetual contracts more generally in the future.

4. Staff Interpretation and No-Action Letter: Interpretation Regarding Categorization of Certain Perpetuals as Foreign Futures and No-Action Position Regarding Certain Digital Commodities and Payment Stablecoins Deposited as Margin

The Market Participants Division of the CFTC issued an interpretation and a no-action position (the "CFM Letter") in response to a request from Coinbase Financial Markets, Inc. (“CFM”), a registered futures commission merchant (“FCM”), relating to CFM’s plan to offer certain digital commodity derivatives products listed on CFM’s affiliated foreign board of trade.⁸ The CFM Letter addressed two related questions. First, the staff confirmed that, consistent with the approval order, the digital-asset-related perpetual contracts described in the letter may be categorized as “foreign futures” as defined in CFTC Regulation 30.1. Second, on the question of CFM posting customer-owned digital commodities or payment stablecoins as margin, the CFM Letter states that, subject to certain specified conditions, the Market Participants Division will not recommend that the CFTC take an enforcement action against CFM for posting such assets with CFM’s foreign broker affiliate to margin its foreign futures and options positions on CFM’s affiliated foreign board of trade in circumstances in which the foreign broker has obtained a right of re-use over the customer-owned assets. The CFM Letter provides clarity for FCMs that seek to offer offshore digital asset perpetuals to U.S. customers while managing margin in the form of digital assets.

5. Staff Advisory: 24/7 Trading, Clearing, and Settlement

The CFTC's Division of Clearing and Risk, Division of Market Oversight, and Market Participants Division jointly issued a staff advisory regarding trading, clearing, and settlement on a 24 hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week (“24/7”) basis. The advisory is primarily a reminder of existing rules and a call for early engagement with staff, rather than new requirements or detailed guidance. It encourages registered DCMs, swap execution facilities, derivatives clearing organizations, and FCMs to pursue responsible innovation in 24/7 trading and clearing, while stressing that all existing obligations under the Commodity Exchange Act and the regulations thereunder must still be fully met. The advisory notes that an asset class may have inherent characteristics that make it more or less suitable for 24/7 trading and clearing.⁹

Significance and Broader Context

Immediately, these developments advance the CFTC’s pro-crypto stance under Chairman Selig. Prior to the actions taken by the CFTC and its staff, perpetual contracts had largely been understood to fall under the statutory definition of a swap because they do not involve the concept of “future delivery.” Futures contracts are subject to different, and generally less onerous, regulatory requirements than swaps (even when the swaps are cleared).

Over the last decade, perpetual futures have dominated the trading volume of digital asset derivatives but true perpetual futures have been offered solely on offshore or DeFi “exchanges” that have purported to operate outside of CFTC jurisdiction.¹⁰ With the approval of the first U.S.-listed bitcoin true perpetual contract, this product structure is now available for trading for the first time on a U.S.-based exchange.¹¹ By establishing a clearer regulatory framework through the policy statement and approval order, the CFTC has opened the door to the listing of perpetual contracts referencing other spot assets and therefore furthered its goal of attracting offshore trading volume to CFTC-regulated markets.

The CFTC’s approval of perpetual contracts could also have broader implications for the U.S. derivatives markets, where traditional futures contracts attract the most trading volume across several asset classes.¹² A perpetual contract that closely tracks the price of its reference spot asset at all times would effectively function as a marginable substitute for the spot asset, without carrying the roll risk of a traditional futures contract.

The CFM Letter complements development by giving U.S. customers regulated access to offshore perpetuals and options through a CFTC-registered FCM, with flexible margin treatment for digital assets. Meanwhile, the advisory concerning 24/7 trading¹³ provides practical guidance for CFTC-regulated entities to operate continuous markets, aligning infrastructure with the around-the-clock nature of digital asset trading. These last two items provide pragmatic pathways that will improve domestic trading efficiencies. Taken together, these steps mark a significant milestone in U.S. digital asset policy. They combine the first regulated perpetual futures contract with the operational and access tools needed to make onshore trading competitive.