CFTC Says Stock Perpetuals Can Trade on Qualifying Exchanges

Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Michael Selig said stock-linked perpetual futures have reached deemed-approval status under federal rules, allowing qualifying U.S. exchanges to offer them as security futures. His November 3 announcement did not identify a venue or launch date, and did not establish that trading has begun. To list the contracts, an exchange must be designated by the CFTC as a contract market and registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a national securities exchange for security-futures trading. Under CFTC Regulation 40.3, a compliant product submission can be deemed approved when the review period expires without the agency issuing a notice of nonapproval. The initial review period is 45 days, with extensions possible under certain conditions. The CFTC’s public database lists KalshiEX’s AAPLPerp and TSLAperp as approved on November 2. It lists KalshiEX’s ABBVPerp and Coinbase Derivatives’ single-stock perpetual contract as pending 45-day approval. Those product-specific entries indicate that the regulator’s database does not show all proposed contracts at the same stage. Perpetual futures have no preset expiration. Proposed...