The CFTC approved the first bitcoin perpetual futures contracts on U.S. regulated exchanges on May 29, 2026. Kalshi received an order to list its BTCPERP contract domestically, while Coinbase Financial Markets received no-action relief to connect U.S. customers to perpetuals on its offshore affiliate. Coinbase acquired Deribit for $2.9 billion. The approval opens a product class American traders previously accessed only offshore.
CFTC perpetual futures approval
- ▪KalshiEX is the CFTC-registered designated contract market operated by Kalshi
- ▪KalshiEX's BTCPERP contract references the spot price of bitcoin and will be listed as a futures contract
- ▪The Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued an Order for Approval to KalshiEX for its BTCPERP contract on May 29, 2026
- ▪The Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved the first bitcoin perpetual futures contract on a registered U.S. exchange on May 29, 2026
Coinbase Deribit no-action relief
- ▪Coinbase acquired Deribit for $2.9 billion
- ▪The no-action relief permits Coinbase to post customer crypto and stablecoins, including bitcoin and ether, as margin collateral
- ▪The no-action relief lets U.S. customers access perpetual contracts listed on Coinbase's offshore affiliate
- ▪The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Market Participants Division granted no-action relief to Coinbase Financial Markets on May 29, 2026
Onshoring crypto derivatives
- ▪Decentralized perpetuals account for only about a tenth of total perpetuals volume according to CoinGecko's 2026 perpetuals report
Hyperliquid competitive implications
- ▪HYPE is up about 10% over the past week according to CoinGecko
- ▪HYPE reached a record near $66 on May 29, 2026
- ▪A flash crash in Hyperliquid's SPACEX-USDH contract wiped out about $1.5 million in notional value within 30 minutes
- ▪Hyperliquid held open interest of roughly $7 billion to $9 billion across recent snapshots according to DefiLlama data
- ▪Hyperliquid processed about $173 billion in perpetual volume over the past 30 days according to DefiLlama data
- ▪HYPE, Hyperliquid's native token, carried a market value of nearly $14.6 billion according to CoinGecko
Regulatory framework details
- ▪Coinbase and others began listing perpetual-style futures in 2025 through self-certification with multi-year expirations
- ▪Equity-linked perpetuals would require input from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission policy statement
- ▪The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's new framework does not carry the force of a formal rule
- ▪The Commodity Futures Trading Commission paired the order with a policy statement setting a case-by-case review process for future perpetuals
- ▪The Commodity Futures Trading Commission policy statement said other asset classes, including equities and commodities, must go through case-by-case review
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