CFTC says U.S. equity perpetuals can begin trading

CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig released a statement on November 3 saying that perpetual futures on individual equity securities can begin trading on designated contract markets that are also notice-registered national securities exchanges with the SEC to trade security futures products.

“Today, perpetual futures contracts on individual equity securities (the ‘Equity Perps’) can begin trading for the first time on CFTC-registered exchanges,” Selig wrote. The CFTC says this creates the first U.S. market structure in which the products may trade.

The legal foundation Selig cited is the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 and the CFTC-SEC Memorandum of Understanding. He said the agencies had moved past a period in which security futures and equity perpetual futures sat in a regulatory “no man’s land” due to a lack of harmonization between them.

Two earlier 2026 moves set the context. In May, the CFTC approved the first U.S.-listed perpetual contract, permitting it to trade as a futures contract while flagging that equity perpetuals warranted coordinated review by both agencies. Then on July 27, CME Group launched single-stock futures — the first meaningful U.S. activity in the security futures space in years.

The November statement goes further. It specifically says individual-equity perpetuals can now begin trading through the dual-registration structure. The broader classification question stays open.

That question is already before both agencies. The Hyperliquid Policy Center filed a comment on August 24 in response to the SEC and CFTC’s joint request for public input on the definitions of “swap” and “security-based swap,” per CryptoTimes.io.

HPC’s requested framework would confirm that the security-future definition covers the established hallmarks of futures, preserve venues’ flexibility to make listing determinations, keep classification consistent across both agencies, and modernize the security-futures framework. Its argument turns on standardized terms, fungibility, futurity, and the ability to exit through an offsetting position.

For U.S. market participants, the immediate effect is that equity perpetuals may now be listed on eligible CFTC-registered venues; the statement does not identify a venue that has already listed one. For exchanges, Selig’s statement supplies a path to list these products under the dual-registration structure. The statement does not resolve HPC’s shared-classification request, provide a timetable for the SEC-CFTC response to that request, or indicate when a venue might list an equity perpetual.

“The question was never whether perpetual contract markets would exist, but whether they would exist under American oversight,” Selig wrote. Whether that oversight produces a consistent rulebook for venues making product-listing decisions is what the agencies’ next regulatory step will clarify.