On October 27, 2026, Crypto.com and OG.com launched regulated crypto perpetual futures with leverage of up to 5x for eligible U.S. traders. Retail customers can access the contracts through the Crypto.com App, while advanced and institutional traders can trade them on the Crypto.com Exchange platform.

The launch, however, is only the first step. The next challenge is persuading traders to move their activity away from offshore exchanges, which still handle most perpetual futures trading.

How the 5x Leverage Math Works

Perpetual futures carry no expiry date. Instead, periodic payments between long and short traders help keep contract prices close to the spot market, and Crypto.com settles these funding payments three times a day.

At 5x leverage, $200 in margin controls a $1,000 position. A 10% price increase produces a $100 gain before costs, while a 10% decline erases half of the initial margin. Positions can also close much earlier: under Crypto.com's maintenance-margin rules, liquidation occurs as soon as margin falls to the required minimum.

Isolated margin keeps losses in one position from affecting others, and stop-loss and take-profit orders help traders manage risk. Trading and liquidation fees are waived at launch, although funding payments still apply.

The Regulatory Structure Behind the Launch

North American Derivatives Exchange, a Crypto.com affiliate, is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as an exchange and clearing organization. It operates under the OG.com and Crypto.com Derivatives North America brands. Foris DAX Inc. serves as the NFA-registered introducing broker, while affiliated OG.com Broker provides futures commission merchant services. The structure places the contracts under the same CFTC oversight framework that governs conventional U.S. futures. Regulation, however, cannot guarantee liquidity.

"The expansion of our trading suite to include regulated crypto perpetuals gives our users the ultimate toolkit for market flexibility," said Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek.

Not the First Onshore Perpetual

The CFTC approved KalshiEX's Bitcoin perpetual on May 29, and Webull plans to offer selected contracts through KalshiEX and Kalshi Klear in November, as Cryptopolitan reported.

Legal uncertainty nonetheless persists. In June, CME filed a lawsuit against the CFTC arguing that perpetual contracts should be classified as swaps rather than futures, and the CFTC has asked the court to dismiss the case. The outcome matters because the two classifications carry different margin, registration, and taxation rules. The court's decision on that dismissal request and Webull's planned November rollout are the near-term developments to watch in the U.S. onshore perpetuals market.

Why Liquidity, Not Licensing, Decides the Winner

The global perpetual futures market is enormous. CryptoQuant estimates that Binance handled about $25 trillion in perpetual trading volume in 2025, while Stanford–Columbia researchers put worldwide reported notional volume at $61.7 trillion that year. The two figures use different measures and should not be added together.

Demand for leveraged trading remains strong. According to CoinGecko, perpetual open interest jumped 40.6% to more than $100 billion in Q3 2026, while centralized spot trading volume fell 14.2%.

Crypto.com already holds a presence in this market. Bitcoin accounted for 59% of its 2025 perpetual volume, according to CryptoQuant, and its top-eight altcoin perpetual volume grew 341%. Those figures, however, do not show whether U.S. traders will embrace the new offering.

Regulation introduces another challenge: a Bank for International Settlements (BIS) study warns that financial safeguards and disclosures remain uneven across crypto intermediaries.

What the Loss Research Shows

AFT researchers examined 729,540 Hyperliquid wallets from March 2025 to June 2026. Using a two-hour, fee-adjusted measure, they found that front-end traders, mostly retail participants, lost $1.11 billion. Market makers gained $208 million, and fees accounted for $725 million of front-end losses.

Hyperliquid is a separate decentralized exchange, not Crypto.com. Still, the findings illustrate how trading costs and forced liquidations can overwhelm leveraged positions. Regulation may improve oversight, but traders still face the market itself.

Source: Cryptopolitan