On November 03, 2026, CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig said in Washington, DC that perpetual futures contracts on individual equity securities—which his statement labels Equity Perps—can begin trading for the first time on CFTC-registered exchanges. Decrypt reported the same day that equity perpetual futures can begin trading on CFTC-registered exchanges, and The Block wrote on November 3, 2026 that CFTC Chair Michael Selig greenlit the ability to trade those contracts for the first time in the U.S. Selig’s statement said the Equity Perps were deemed approved by the Commission, pursuant to Commission Regulation 40.3, as security futures products under the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000—a deeming path that treats the contracts as security futures rather than as a novel product type outside existing US derivatives law.

Why It Matters

Under Selig’s statement, the contracts are subject to the Commodity Exchange Act, U.S. Federal securities laws, and the regulatory frameworks of both the CFTC and the SEC. A footnote clarifies that CFTC-registered exchanges here means designated contract markets dually registered with the SEC as notice-registered national securities exchanges to trade security futures products. Cointelegraph reported on Nov 3, 2026 that the contracts could be offered on exchanges registered with both the CFTC and SEC to trade security futures products, and Selig’s statement distinguishes the statutory framework for joint CFTC-SEC oversight from the March memorandum supporting agency coordination. The Block reported Selig said both the SEC and CFTC would oversee the contracts. On our reading, margin, listing standards and customer protections for these equity perps would therefore be set inside joint US security-futures rules, which can differ from the discretionary funding schedules and margin terms common on offshore perpetual markets. Selig argued in the statement that bringing the products into regulated US markets helps traders access them within the protections of the CFTC’s regulatory framework rather than being forced to turn to offshore, and often unregulated, venues—wording that frames the policy choice without guaranteeing identical economics to crypto-native perps.

Selig tied the move to the CFMA’s joint-regulation design and to agency coordination this year. He wrote that the CFTC and SEC entered into a memorandum of understanding earlier this year to guide coordination, with a footnote pointing to a March 11, 2026 joint release. He also cited SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins’s description of innovative products stranded in a regulatory “no man’s land” when agencies lacked harmonization. The statement said today’s Equity Perps build on a May 29, 2026 order approving a bitcoin perpetual futures contract on a CFTC-regulated exchange, extending the same perpetual instrument from digital commodities into traditional securities. These equity contracts fall into the security-futures category and are subject to both CFTC and SEC frameworks.

Cointelegraph wrote that Selig did not identify which exchanges would offer the contracts or provide a timeline for when trading would begin. The same report noted a June lawsuit arguing cryptocurrency perpetual futures should be regulated as swaps rather than futures, and reported the Capital Markets Alliance filed suit Tuesday afternoon seeking to overturn the CFTC approval—legal friction that could affect timing even after the deeming. Traders should check each contract’s published specifications for funding cadence, leverage caps and session rules rather than assume those terms match an offshore perpetual contract. Maintaining a perpetual position requires meeting applicable margin requirements. Any funding payments or settlement cash flows depend on the contract specifications and relevant exchange and clearing rules.

Go deeper

On LeverUp, perpetual futures trade through a protocol-managed virtual liquidity architecture.