Wall Street Gets a Perpetual Motion Machine as CFTC Greenlights Stock Perps

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has approved the first U.S. listings of perpetual futures contracts tied to individual stocks, clearing designated contract markets to offer the products alongside other security futures.

The contracts may trade on registered exchanges with approval from both the CFTC and SEC to operate as notice-registered national securities exchanges and offer security futures products. The approval extends perpetual futures beyond digital commodities and into traditional securities.

CFTC Chair Michael Selig said the announcement follows the regulator’s earlier approval of the first Bitcoin perpetual contracts alongside other regulated U.S. crypto derivative products. “Today’s announcement builds on that milestone by extending the availability of the perpetual futures contract instrument in the U.S. beyond digital commodities and into traditional securities,” Selig said.

Selig also reaffirmed plans to continue onboarding offshore derivative products in the United States, marking a new stage in the regulated expansion of perpetual contracts.