Can Stock Perpetuals Fit Existing U.S. Securities Rules?
In three Aug. 24 comment letters submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Ondo argued that current rules can accommodate perpetual stock futures while accounting for modern margin systems and onchain market data.
The proposal targets a product category that has grown primarily outside the United States. Perpetual futures allow traders to gain leveraged exposure without the fixed expiration date used by traditional futures contracts. Instead, periodic funding payments between traders help keep the contract price close to the underlying asset.
Ondo argued that this mechanism can perform an economic role similar to expiration and settlement in conventional futures. “Nothing in the statutory definition of a security futures product requires a fixed expiration date,” the company said in its product-classification letter.
If regulators accept that interpretation, exchanges could potentially offer stock-linked perpetuals under existing security futures rules rather than waiting for a separate regulatory category to be developed.
Why Does Ondo Want Stock Perpetual Trading Onshore?
Ondo already has direct exposure to the offshore market. A Panama-based affiliate offers stablecoin-settled perpetual futures linked to individual U.S.-listed stocks outside the United States. The platform recorded $8 billion in cumulative trading volume as of Aug. 14, roughly six weeks after launching.
That volume gives Ondo a commercial reason to push for a domestic framework, but its regulatory argument focuses on where price discovery occurs. Many stocks underlying offshore perpetual contracts are primarily traded on U.S. exchanges, even though the derivatives themselves are available only to users in overseas markets.
“Bringing that activity back to the U.S. should not be an open question; it’s something both agencies should actively pursue,” Ondo said.
Allowing domestic trading could redirect some derivatives volume toward regulated U.S. venues while giving the SEC and CFTC greater oversight of products already being traded offshore. It could also place U.S. exchanges in more direct competition with crypto platforms that have built large perpetual futures businesses outside the country.
Investor Takeaway
Ondo’s proposal is ultimately about where stock-linked derivatives liquidity develops. If U.S. regulators accept perpetual futures within the existing security futures framework, trading activity that has largely grown offshore could begin moving toward regulated domestic venues.
Could Regulatory Coordination Make Approval Easier?
The proposal arrives as the SEC and CFTC work more closely on digital asset products that fall near the boundary between securities and derivatives regulation. The agencies signed a memorandum of understanding in March aimed at coordinating oversight where their jurisdictions overlap.
Stock perpetual futures sit directly inside that overlap. The underlying shares are securities overseen by the SEC, while futures markets fall within the CFTC’s derivatives mandate. Security futures already operate under a joint regulatory structure, giving Ondo a legal foundation for arguing that perpetual versions can be handled through the same system.
Regulators are also reassessing rules created before blockchain-based trading infrastructure became commercially relevant. On Tuesday, the SEC proposed changes to its decades-old transfer agent framework as it considers blockchain-native recordkeeping and tokenized securities.
Ondo itself has become a large participant in tokenized real-world assets, with about $2.6 billion in distributed value as of Wednesday, placing it fourth among tokenized RWA managers according to RWA.xyz data.
What Would U.S. Stock Perpetuals Mean For Crypto Markets?
The debate extends beyond Ondo. U.S. policymakers have also discussed bringing onchain perpetual futures platforms into the domestic regulatory system. President Donald Trump said in August that CFTC Chair Michael Selig was working to bring Hyperliquid into the United States in a fully compliant and legal manner, although neither the regulator nor Hyperliquid has detailed how such access would operate.
Hyperliquid has built much of its business around onchain perpetual futures. Its HYPE token rose more than 20% after Trump’s comments and was up nearly 49% over the following month to around $81 on Wednesday, according to market data.
A workable U.S. framework for perpetual futures tied to stocks could create a new bridge between traditional securities markets and crypto trading infrastructure. Exchanges could potentially combine continuous derivatives trading, stablecoin settlement and onchain collateral with exposure to listed equities.
The difficult part will be fitting those products into rules governing margin, investor protection, market surveillance and joint SEC-CFTC supervision. Ondo’s argument is that regulators already have the legal foundation and mainly need to adapt implementation to newer market technology.
If that view gains acceptance, the United States would not need to invent a new asset class to compete with offshore perpetual markets. It could instead use its existing security futures framework to bring part of that activity under domestic supervision.
