Crypto Exchanges Line Up for US Perpetual Futures as Regulators Prepare to Open the Door

Quick overview

For years, American traders who wanted to trade perpetual futures on crypto had one real option: go offshore. Platforms in Asia, the Bahamas, and Europe captured that business because the US never got around to building a proper regulatory framework for it. That looks like it is finally changing, and the industry is not waiting around to see how it plays out.

Perpetual futures, often called perps, are derivative contracts with no expiration date. Traders can hold leveraged positions on crypto prices indefinitely, which makes them popular but also genuinely risky, particularly for retail investors who may not fully appreciate how quickly leverage can turn against them. Global trading volume in these instruments hit $61.7 trillion last year, up 29% from the year before, almost all of it happening outside the United States.

CFTC chairman Michael Selig has made bringing that activity back onshore one of his priorities. At a Milken Institute event in March, he put a rough timeline on it, saying guidance was coming within weeks. His position on what went wrong is pretty clear: the prior administration left the space without rules, firms moved their operations abroad, and the liquidity followed. Getting it back means giving the industry something concrete to work with.

Exchanges are already moving. Coinbase has self-certified perpetual-style contracts with five-year expirations and up to 10x leverage, a workaround that gets close to the real thing within current rules. Bitnomial remains the only US platform offering full perpetual futures through self-certification. Kalshi, better known for its prediction markets, is preparing to launch crypto perps in the coming weeks. Polymarket made a similar announcement on Tuesday, opening a waitlist for early access to leveraged trading on bitcoin, Nvidia, and gold.

Not everyone is rushing in. Robinhood’s Johann Kerbrat said his firm would rather wait for the regulatory framework to be properly established before launching a product, arguing that a clearly approved perpetual offering would be more competitive than a workaround.

Advocacy group Better Markets has been vocal about the risks, pushing for leverage caps and clearer disclosures so retail traders know what they are actually getting into. On the regulatory side, the expected framework is supposed to cover margin requirements, leverage limits, and how liquidations get handled. Whether it moves quickly is another matter. Selig is currently the only confirmed commissioner out of five seats, which puts real limits on how fast formal rulemaking can go.

Meanwhile, Congress has not made things easier. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, meant to sort out which agency oversees what in crypto, is still caught up in back-and-forth between the industry, banks, and lawmakers. With midterms getting closer and Senate floor time shrinking, the window for passing anything substantial this year is getting narrow.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR See More

Sophia Cruz

Financial Writer - Asian & European Desks

Sophia is an experienced writer, reporter and newsdesk member, mostly on the financial sectors. For the past 5 years Sophia has covered a wide variety of topics such as the financial markets, economics, technology, fin-tech and trading. Sophia has been a part of the FX Leaders team since 2017 and works on producing valuable content and information for traders of all levels of experience.

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