CFTC clears perpetual futures on single US stocks for registered exchanges

What the CFTC said

“Today, perpetual futures contracts on individual equity securities (the ‘Equity Perps’) can begin trading for the first time on CFTC-registered exchanges,” Chairman Selig said. The CFTC’s press release says they can trade on designated contract markets that are also notice-registered with the SEC as securities exchanges for security futures. Because they were deemed approved as security futures products, they fall under both the Commodity Exchange Act and federal securities law, with oversight by the CFTC and the SEC.

Neither the statement nor the press release names an exchange, the stocks covered or a start date. Bankless reported that no venue had posted a launch date by the end of 3 November.

The legal challenge

A newly formed group, the Capital Markets Alliance, sued the CFTC in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York the same day. Cboe’s own release says the group includes Cboe, Citadel Securities and the Healthy Markets Association. According to CoinDesk and The Defiant, it challenges the approvals for Coinbase Derivatives, KalshiEX and Bitnomial, argues that single-stock perps are security-based swaps that belong under the SEC, and asks the court to set the approvals aside. No court has ruled.

What it means for Hyperliquid users

Nothing changes on Hyperliquid. The CFTC action covers US-registered exchanges, not offshore venues, and Hyperliquid’s terms still restrict US persons and Ontario; trade.xyz’s terms also restrict the US, Canada and the UK (what that means for US readers). The two announced routes to US-regulated perps built on Hyperliquid, ICE with trade.xyz and Payward’s HIP-3* plan, still need their own approvals and have no launch date. The Defiant notes that ICE and trade.xyz are not among the applicants the lawsuit targets.