Perpetual futures contracts—a mainstay of offshore digital asset exchanges—may finally become accessible to U.S.-based traders under regulated platforms.
Industry experts say that a regulatory shift under President Donald Trump’s administration is clearing the way for these high-risk instruments to be available in the U.S. market for the first time.
Perpetual futures, also known as “perps,” enable investors to bet on cryptocurrency’s price without having the underlying assets. These contracts don’t expire like traditional futures and are settled every eight hours, which allows them to track spot prices closely. They also provide traders with an option to leverage position up to 100 times—an alluring option to risk-on retail investors.
In global terms, perps control cryptocurrency trading volume, frequently comprising the greater portion of the action on exchanges like Binance, where daily volumes can surpass $70 billion, vastly outdoing spot market activity. Yet, due to their prevalence, regulators ban these instruments from U.S. retail investors.
That may soon change.
On March 28, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced the withdrawal of two long-standing staff advisories, widely speculated as a further alignment of the regulatory treatment of crypto-derivatives and traditional financial products. Separately, Coinbase Derivatives, part of crypto giant Coinbase Global Inc., has said it is working to bring perpetual-style futures contracts to the U.S. in what would be a first-of-its-kind offering in that country.
Trump’s policies speed up regulatory easing
Regions say that President Trump’s administration has brought a clear break from the hard-line posture of its predecessors. In recent months, officials have dismissed several lawsuits against crypto companies, hosted a White House summit on digital assets, and even trained national token reserves. Trump has also expressed support for stablecoins, allowing for a more permissive approach toward the wider digital asset framework.
Legal experts say an upcoming change is in sight. The clear direction of travel was toward the U.S. permitting crypto-based derivatives, so in his view, it was only a matter of time, said Gabe Rosenberg, partner at law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell.
Having been introduced by BitMEX in 2016, perpetual futures have long been a favorite instrument for offshore investors and those wanting exposure to crypto without holding the digital assets themselves. They also provide improved hedging capabilities, as traders are not required to roll over contracts regularly. Adam McCarthy, an analyst at Kaiko, said that the perps market has been the heart of crypto speculation and pricing for almost a decade.
U.S.-based crypto platforms are gearing up for a derivatives rush with the opening of the regulatory door. It is also in advanced discussions to acquire the crypto derivatives exchange Deribit, one of the largest in the world, in a deal that would value the company at between $4 billion and $5 billion. Kraken, a competing exchange, indicated its ambitions in the futures space when it recently announced its $1.5 billion acquisition of retail trading outfit NinjaTrader.
Chris Newhouse, director of research at Cumberland Labs, noted that perpetual futures represent a simple and accessible mechanism for users to speculate with leverage. He pointed to the thrills of meme stocks, zero-day options, and weekly expiries as near-definitive evidence of the appetite for U.S. retail investment risk moving upward on an upward trajectory.
Institutional players are also closely observing. The instruments could represent a “great unlock” for larger firms, as they would fit with existing risk and operational frameworks, said Jason Urban, global head of trading at Galaxy Digital.
Retail investors challenge regulatory barriers as demand grows
There are questions about how U.S. regulators will deal with perps and the risks that are part and parcel of using them, especially with a retail audience. They said any approval framework should include leverage caps, position limits, and other risk controls.
While institutional entities can legally swap crypto on registered exchanges, retail remains heavily restricted, Rosenberg tweeted. The main problem, he added, is the lack of clear legislation over what’s eligible for margin and the long-term regulatory certainty.
In addition, perps are competing for investor attention with other U.S.-regulated crypto products, including exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and CME futures. ETFs provide a passive way to get crypto exposure but don’t provide the leverage and immediacy of perpetual futures. Finally, leveraged ETFs afford daily balancing/rebalancing and transaction fees, which will eat into returns over time.
Newhouse noted the active trader as the main target market in this case (passive investors already have sufficient coverage in the ETF), adding that real-time market exposure seekers would find perps more cost-effective and efficient.
Although some Americans already access perps through VPNs and offshore accounts, the real opportunity lies in attracting new flows through regulated domestic platforms.
As regulatory signals get more positive and market infrastructure develops frenzied, it’s only a matter of time before American investors are given legal access to the core of the global crypto derivatives market.
