Perpetual futures, first proposed by economist Robert Shiller in 1993 and later commercialized by the crypto industry, are being considered by Wall Street for products such as the VIX, the stock market’s so-called fear gauge.

Cboe, which created the index, is exploring perpetual futures linked to the VIX, although the proposal remains at an early stage and has not yet produced contract specifications or a regulatory filing, according to Bloomberg.

The VIX Index measures expected 30-day volatility for the S&P 500 using options prices. Investors often buy options as protection against rapid market declines, so demand for those contracts tends to increase during downturns, pushing the index higher. As a result, the VIX is widely known as Wall Street’s “fear gauge.”

The index already supports an active derivatives market, including futures, options and exchange-traded products that track the VIX. Futures, however, have expiration dates, after which contracts cease to exist and traders must roll their positions into the next available contract. Those rollovers can be costly and reduce returns, a criticism also directed at bitcoin futures exchange-traded funds when they debuted in late 2021.

Perpetual swaps, by contrast, do not expire. They use a funding-rate mechanism intended to keep the contract price anchored to the spot index, theoretically providing investors with a close proxy for trading the VIX at its spot value. In crypto markets, those funding payments are exchanged periodically between long and short positions, with the side that pays determined by whether the contract trades above or below the index.

“Traders don’t have to worry about expiries and decay and just focus on the direction of where they think the underlying is heading. The VIX is one of many more indexes, assets and metrics that will be perpified. We expect to see a strong wave of perp-ification to occur in the coming months,” Martin Lee, market insights lead at DWF Labs, told CoinDesk.

Some crypto exchanges, including Gate, already offer VIX/USDT perpetual contracts. The market remains highly illiquid, however, with little noticeable trading volume. Hyperliquid recently listed futures linked to bitcoin’s VIX, Volmex’s bitcoin implied-volatility index, according to CoinDesk.

A potential launch of VIX perpetual futures could bring more traders into volatility markets. A larger pool of buyers and sellers, along with increased hedging by market makers across VIX futures and other S&P 500 derivatives, could bring the various VIX products into closer alignment.

Funding payments would still represent a cost. In addition, the VIX is a mathematical calculation rather than an asset that exists in the same way as bitcoin. That creates a challenge for market makers, which cannot easily buy or sell “spot” asset to hedge their exposure as bitcoin market makers can.

“For us, the interesting question is how funding would anchor an index that cannot be bought as a cash asset. Removing expiry does not remove hedge costs or basis risk. Until contract terms exist, this is a potential new volatility market, not a cheaper substitute for options convexity,” analysts at Marex Solutions said in an email.

Cboe’s exploration illustrates the continuing convergence of traditional and crypto market structures as exchanges develop new volatility products. The proposal remains preliminary, and the exchange has not announced contract terms or filed for the product. Published contract specifications and a regulatory filing would be the first concrete signs of whether the concept advances.

Other items featured in the CoinDesk newsletter included the following:

• Reuters reported that U.S. job growth was expected to slow in September, with the unemployment rate forecast to remain around 4.1% for a third consecutive month. The report said the labor market appeared stable heading into the fourth quarter. Reuters
• Bitcoin open interest increased by $2.3 billion as traders paid more for bullish positions ahead of Friday’s U.S. jobs report. Bitcoin rose from about $83,500 to $86,500 over the same period, while its price moved above $86,000. CoinDesk reported that the combination of rising prices and open interest indicated that new positions were helping support the rally. CoinDesk
• Tether’s USDT, described as the world’s largest stablecoin, was expected to return to Bitcoin during October through infrastructure developed by the Tether-backed project Utexo. CoinDesk
• CNBC reported that the Trump administration had urged European countries to immediately release some diesel reserves, arguing that U.S. farmers, truckers and businesses should not bear the burden of global supply disruptions. CNBC

Today’s signal

A chart of XRP’s price movements since late 2025 showed the token forming a large inverse head-and-shoulders bottoming pattern. The pattern consists of three troughs, with the middle trough being the deepest, and short recoveries between them connected by a trendline known as the neckline.

For XRP, the neckline was around $1.70. A move above that level would confirm the breakout and signal a bullish trend reversal.

The newsletter also listed these recently published CoinDesk articles:

1. “There’s an election next month: State of Crypto,” published six hours earlier.
2. “Crypto poured years into new products. The next challenge is keeping users,” published 11 hours earlier.
3. “The Clarity Act stalled. Bankers aren’t hitting the brakes yet on crypto dealmaking,” published 12 hours earlier.
4. “Payments firm OpenPayd targets year-end Nasdaq listing to fund U.S. expansion and acquisitions,” published one day earlier.
5. “Crypto job postings triple to over 1,200 in September, but applications fall,” published one day earlier.
6. “Cathie Wood says smart investors need to start watching where AI agents spend money,” published one day earlier.
7. “Crypto’s Sisyphean struggle,” published one day earlier.
8. “BlackRock offers a glimpse of how tokenization may change your investment portfolio,” published one day earlier.
9. “Bank group sues U.S. regulator over granting crypto trust charters,” published two days earlier.
10. “BNY in talks with Kraken parent Payward over infrastructure partnership,” published two days earlier.

The newsletter also promoted CoinDesk Research’s “The Definitive Stablecoin Landscape Series: Asia Pacific.” The report described APAC as a key proving ground as stablecoins move into regulated finance and said it maps the region’s rules and use cases, as well as RLUSD’s role. The report is available at CoinDesk Research.