Two forms, and the promise of a stock market that never sleeps. Coinbase filed two registration notices with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this week, the first step towards listing in the United States perpetual contracts on shares tradable 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The largest American crypto exchange wants to repatriate a market that is today largely operated from offshore platforms.
Coinbase pushes its pawns between SEC and CFTC
The information comes from Faryar Shirzad, director of public affairs at Coinbase, in a message published on
These notifications to the SEC will not be enough. Coinbase will still need approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the agency that oversees US derivatives markets. This dual supervision is explained by the nature of the product: contracts relating to shares fall under both securities law and that of futures contracts.
A perpetual contract, or perp, is a derivative product with no maturity date. Unlike a future classic, it can remain open indefinitely. Its price remains close to that of the underlying asset thanks to the funding rate, a periodic payment exchanged between long and short positions.
Coinbase has already offered this format to its eligible customers outside the United States since March. Its catalog includes Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, NVIDIA, Meta and Tesla, as well as contracts linked to the SPY and QQQ ETFs. These products offer synthetic exposure with leverage, without holding shares.
The CFTC has started to clear the ground
The derivatives regulator did not wait for Coinbase to open the door. In May, the CFTC approved KalshiEX to list a Bitcoin perpetual contract. It also allowed US customers of Coinbase to access, through a regulated entity, certain perpetual contracts offered on Deribit.
In June, the agency also launched a consultation on perpetual contracts applied to crude oil and on the extension of trading hours. The goal is to determine how to adapt rules designed for expiry contracts to continuously open products.
Coinbase had already developed an intermediate solution for the American market: so-called “perpetual style” futures, with a five-year maturity and a funding mechanism calculated every hour. The new project now aims to offer real contracts without expiry on individual shares.
Wall Street is also preparing to extend its hours. The NYSE wants to increase trading on NYSE Arca to 22 hours a day on weekdays. The Nasdaq plans a 23-hour day, five days a week. The SEC also approved the creation of 24X National Exchange, which aims to operate 23 hours a day from Sunday evening to Friday, but not during the weekend.
Hyperliquid, the spur that speeds everyone up
Behind Coinbase's eagerness appears in particular Hyperliquid, a decentralized platform specializing in perpetual contracts and equipped with the HYPE token. Its developer, Hyperliquid Labs, is based in Singapore, but the platform does not have authorization to serve American investors.
Donald Trump cited it at a White House event in August, saying CFTC Chairman Michael Selig was working on his arrival in the United States "in a fully compliant and legal manner."
The movement is accelerating. Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Hyperliquid Labs was discussing an entry into the American market via Payward, the parent company of Kraken, subject to approval from regulators.
For Coinbase, the challenge is twofold: recover part of the derivatives volumes currently carried out abroad and apply to stocks a format popularized by the crypto industry. American brokers already offer, for certain stocks, night trading during the week. However, they do not yet allow real perpetual equity contracts to be traded 24 hours a day and on weekends.
