Coinbase has asked the US securities regulator SEC to approve stock perpetuals that would trade around the clock. Before any US launch, however, the exchange also needs sign-off from the futures regulator CFTC.

Stock perpetuals are futures contracts without an expiration date. Traders use them to bet on the price movement of a share without owning the stock itself, and the position requires no rollover. Such contracts run continuously rather than only during regular market hours, meaning trading would be possible on weekends as well. That is a notable departure from conventional US equity markets, where single stocks trade on exchanges during set weekday sessions and news breaking outside those hours can only be priced in when markets reopen. Perpetuals originated in the crypto sector, where exchanges anchor the contract price to the underlying through a funding-rate mechanism rather than expiry-based settlement, and that design has carried over to the equity versions now emerging. Coinbase filed the so-called notice registration form with the agency in late August, and Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad confirmed the step in early September on X. The exchange has in fact offered the product since March 2026, though exclusively for users outside the US, with Apple, Microsoft, NVIDIA and Amazon serving as the underlyings.

The dual approval path across SEC and CFTC

The document filed is a notice registration form, through which the exchange informs the regulator about the listing. The SEC reviews the securities element, while the CFTC reviews the futures element. So far the company has not disclosed which form number and which rulebook sit behind it. Shirzad made the filing public in early September, after it had reached the SEC.

Yet the securities regulator's approval alone is not enough for trading to start. Perpetuals are derivatives, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversees the US futures market. Coinbase therefore needs a green light from the CFTC on top of an SEC approval; only then may US clients trade the contracts. The timeline thus rests on two independent processes, for which Coinbase has named no dates.

The securities regulator holds jurisdiction because single stocks count as securities, and consequently a derivative on a single name follows the same regime. Coinbase has held a CFTC approval for crypto perpetuals since May 2026, but that approval does not cover stocks as underlyings. Without both clearances, Coinbase cannot offer the product to US clients. Shirzad also pointed to the demand outside the US that the company has itself served since the spring:

"Equity perps have demonstrated demand internationally, and we look forward to the prospect of a regulated access route for US investors." - Faryar Shirzad, Chief Policy Officer, Coinbase

Stock perpetuals have run outside the US since March

The application is not a new product but the extension of a running business into the home market. Since March 2026 the exchange has offered perpetual futures on single stocks, initially only for users outside the US. Four underlyings are available there - Apple, Microsoft, NVIDIA and Amazon - all four of which come from the US technology sector. The technical and operational infrastructure therefore already exists; what remains open is essentially regulatory access.

The application also falls into a phase in which the CFTC looks more favorably on 24/7 trading, a shift the regulator prepared step by step. In May 2026 the CFTC approved Bitcoin perpetual futures for the US market at staff level for the first time, with Coinbase and the futures exchange KalshiEX receiving their clearances at the same time. Before that, no approval of this kind existed in the US, so the regulator allowed open-ended futures contracts onshore for the first time - though that step covered crypto underlyings only.

One month later the agency widened the frame. In June 2026 it published a request for comment on perpetuals on crude oil and on 24/7 trading in general, putting the trading hours of the entire regulated futures market up for discussion rather than a single product. Coinbase's stock perpetuals fit into this opening: within four months the frame moved from crypto underlyings through commodities to single stocks.

Kalshi takes the same direction through the index route

Coinbase is not competing alone for the new product category. Kalshi filed an application with the CFTC on 18 August 2026 for perpetuals on a stock index, with the MerQube U.S. Large Cap Index - a counterpart to the S&P 500 made up of large-cap US stocks - as the underlying. The platform also applied for perpetuals on copper, which as a commodity likewise falls under CFTC jurisdiction. Both contracts target classic TradFi underlyings instead of cryptocurrencies.

The decisive difference lies in the approval path. Kalshi's index application needs no SEC clearance, because broadly diversified stock baskets sit with the CFTC in regulatory terms. Coinbase, however, must first pass the securities regulator: Kalshi runs through one process, Coinbase through two. Economically, both products serve the same function - a position on US equity risk, tradable around the clock.

Both providers come from the same direction. Originally Kalshi and Coinbase held only CFTC clearances for crypto perpetuals before expanding into stocks, indices and commodities. The competition for 24/7 derivatives is thus shifting from crypto underlyings into the core business of the established futures exchanges.

Hyperliquid dominates the market outside US regulation

The bulk of global perpetuals trading traditionally runs outside US regulation. That volume sits above all with crypto-native and decentralized platforms, led by Hyperliquid, a decentralized trading platform for perpetuals without a central operator. Regulated US platforms could not serve this segment at all until the CFTC acted, with that first approval coming in May 2026. Now the regulated US providers are competing for exactly that volume.

Politics addresses this route openly. At the White House in August 2026, President Donald Trump addressed the platform directly, saying that CFTC Chair Michael Selig was working to bring Hyperliquid onshore in the US in a fully compliant manner. At the same time, Hyperliquid Labs is reportedly in talks with Payward, the parent company of Kraken, about a regulated US market entry. The offshore side is therefore also moving toward US authorization.

For Coinbase, the outcome of both processes will decide its position in a market that is currently rearranging itself. If approval comes, the exchange can carry an internationally tested product into the world's largest stock market. If it does not, other platforms will keep serving the demand, either through the index route or from offshore. Two regulators will finally decide on the timing, not the company.