Source publication: November 5, 2026, at 15:40 (UTC+8). This article summarizes reporting and analysis published at that time.
Stock perpetual futures are moving from crypto platforms toward regulated U.S. markets, according to Odaily’s November 5 report. The development brings a familiar crypto trading mechanism—leveraged contracts without an expiry date—into the debate over how traditional equities should trade.
The report says CFTC Chairman Mike Selig announced on November 3 that single-stock perpetual contracts could begin trading on regulated U.S. exchanges under joint CFTC and SEC oversight. Kalshi reportedly began offering contracts linked to Amgen (AMGN), McDonald’s (MCD), Qualcomm (QCOM) and Costco (COST) that day, with maximum leverage of approximately 4.9 times.
The important distinction: a stock perpetual is a derivative, not necessarily a share of stock. Its expansion may create more ways to trade equity-price exposure, but it does not automatically deliver share ownership, continuous underlying-stock liquidity or reliable weekend prices.
What makes a perpetual different?
Traditional futures expire. Traders who want to maintain exposure must periodically replace an expiring contract with another, incurring transaction costs and exposure to changing price differences between contracts.
Perpetuals remove that scheduled expiry. Traders can maintain long or short positions without rolling them solely because a contract is approaching maturity. Periodic funding payments between longs and shorts help pull the contract price toward a reference price.
That does not make the position cost-free or eliminate risk. Funding costs, leverage, margin requirements and liquidity still matter.
The model became central to crypto trading. Citing The Block, Odaily reports that perpetuals accounted for approximately 75% of centralized crypto-exchange trading volume in 2025, with nearly $49 trillion traded over the year.
A separate TokenInsight report cited by Odaily put derivatives at 83% of trading volume across its tracked exchanges in the third quarter of 2026. That broader derivatives figure should not be mistaken for a perpetual-only measure.
Why the U.S. regulatory framework matters
Single-stock perpetuals sit across two regulatory domains: they reference securities while using a derivatives structure.
According to Odaily’s account of Selig’s announcement, the contracts fall within the security-futures framework established under the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. They must comply with both the Commodity Exchange Act and federal securities laws.
The report says a venue offering them needs both:
- Registration with the CFTC as a designated contract market.
- National securities exchange status through SEC notice registration, permitting it to trade security-futures products.
Odaily places the announcement within a wider sequence of regulatory developments. It reports that the SEC and CFTC signed a cooperation memorandum on March 11, 2026, and that the CFTC approved KalshiEX’s BTCPERP bitcoin perpetual on May 29.
These developments concern specific products and regulatory arrangements. They do not establish blanket approval for every offshore, tokenized or onchain stock derivative.
Crypto exchanges were already expanding beyond crypto
The reported U.S. launch followed a series of stock-perpetual initiatives elsewhere:
- August 11, 2025: MSX began public testing of tokenized U.S.-stock perpetuals.
- October 2025: Hyperliquid introduced HIP-3, opening perpetual-market creation to third-party developers and enabling expansion into stocks, indices, commodities and foreign exchange.
- January–February 2026: Binance launched TSLAUSDT, followed by contracts linked to MSTR, AMZN, CRCL, COIN and PLTR, using USDT for margin and settlement with round-the-clock trading.
- February 3, 2026: Ondo Finance announced Ondo Perps, covering plans for traditional-asset perpetuals and exploration of tokenized securities as collateral. The report says the platform launched in July.
- February 24, 2026: Kraken introduced xStocks-based perpetuals for eligible non-U.S. users in more than 110 countries and territories, with leverage of up to 20 times.
- March 20, 2026: Coinbase launched stock perpetuals for eligible non-U.S. users, settled in USDC.
Odaily also describes Bitget’s stock-perpetual offering, covering several U.S. equities and ETFs with USDT settlement and near-continuous trading.
These products do not all have the same structure. The report distinguishes synthetic contracts offering exposure to share-price movements without delivery of actual shares from arrangements built around tokenized stocks or tokenized securities used as collateral. The “stock perpetual” label alone does not tell a trader what backs the product.
Rising traditional-asset volume, falling overall activity
The expansion coincided with weaker overall exchange activity in TokenInsight’s sample.
According to the figures quoted by Odaily, third-quarter 2026 trading volume was approximately $12 trillion, down 27.5% from the previous quarter and marking a third consecutive quarterly decline. Spot volume fell 55% to $2 trillion, while derivatives volume fell 17% to $10 trillion.
Derivatives nevertheless increased their share of total volume by 10 percentage points to 83%.
Across nine exchanges covered by the report, stock and commodity perpetuals generated approximately $2.1 trillion in quarterly volume. Stock perpetuals accounted for around $1.61 trillion, or 77%, while commodity perpetuals contributed about $491 billion.
Those figures support the view that traditional-asset derivatives were becoming an important business line. They do not, by themselves, demonstrate broader investor adoption, improved market quality or stronger underlying projects. Odaily also cautions against attributing the expansion solely to falling crypto volumes: exchanges already had derivatives engines, stablecoin settlement systems and margin infrastructure they could extend to other assets.
ICE’s proposed route remains subject to approval
The traditional-finance side of the story includes Intercontinental Exchange, the parent of the New York Stock Exchange.
Odaily reports that ICE announced a partnership with Trade[XYZ] on October 29, 2026, to bring Hyperliquid-based perpetual markets to the United States. Under the proposed arrangement, ICE would operate a new regulated trading market and clearing infrastructure and make a strategic investment in Trade[XYZ]. Trade[XYZ] would supply market-design and product technology.
The planned scope includes stocks, indices, cryptocurrencies, commodities and foreign exchange. Crucially, the business still required regulatory approval. The proposal was not evidence that those markets were already operating in the United States.
Weekend trading is not an official stock price
Stock perpetuals can keep trading while the underlying equity exchange is closed. That creates a venue for reacting to weekend news—but also a pricing problem: the cash market is unavailable as a continuous reference or hedge.
Odaily describes Coinbase’s approach as combining external equity-price feeds during normal trading with an internal index during weekends and certain closed periods. That internal reference incorporates an exponential moving average of perpetual mark prices and available tokenized-stock quotes, alongside deviation limits and transition mechanisms.
Funding payments and cross-platform trading can help constrain price differences. Neither guarantees accuracy. When the underlying stock market is closed, traders may be comparing derivatives with other derivatives rather than executing a fully hedged trade against actual shares.
The remaining risks include funding costs, margin demands, thin liquidity and a price gap when the stock market reopens. Weekend perpetual quotes may offer information about expectations, but they are not official Nasdaq or NYSE stock prices, nor do they determine Monday’s opening price.
What remains unproven
Odaily frames the trend as convergence rather than crypto replacing traditional finance. Crypto platforms contribute continuous trading and stablecoin-based infrastructure; traditional institutions bring regulatory permissions, custody, clearing and institutional liquidity.
Other developments cited in the report were still forward-looking at publication. Nasdaq’s approved move to trading 23 hours a day, five days a week, was expected to start on December 6, 2026. A CFTC roundtable on round-the-clock derivatives trading was scheduled for December 15.
The open question was not simply whether a contract could trade all weekend. It was whether these markets could sustain dependable liquidity, robust reference prices and workable risk management when the underlying stock market was shut. The reported launches and proposals show growing institutional interest—not proof that those challenges have been solved.