The US’ top derivatives regulator is gearing to open the door to crypto perpetual futures. Speaking on Tuesday at the Milken Institute’s Future of Finance conference, Michael Selig, Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), said the agency would establish a framework within the “next month or so”.
Crypto perpetual futures, or “perps,” allow traders to hold leveraged positions indefinitely, without the inconvenience of an expiry date. They were popularised by crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX during the 2017-18 boom and have gained significant momentum recently.
According to crypto data aggregator CoinGecko, the top ten crypto perp exchanges processed a whopping US$92.9 trillion in trading volume in 2025, a 64.6% increase on the previous year.
More importantly, this surge came amid a bruising fourth-quarter market decline for crypto, as bitcoin and its counterparts bled value.
For years, however, American traders have largely watched from the sidelines. While global platforms such as Binance and Bybit facilitated trillions in offshore perp trading, US participants were mostly confined to spot markets or traditional futures.
Selig cast the CFTC’s forthcoming framework as an effort to repatriate that liquidity.
“We need to have that liquidity here in the US and we need the right investor protections to ensure that these firms don’t blow up and affect our shores,” he said.
He added that “the prior administration drove a lot of these firms and the liquidity offshore,” a jab at Washington’s recent regulatory past, the sort of partisan point-scoring that has become routine in the US' politics.
The move forms part of a broader, coordinated push to position the US as the de facto global hub for crypto finance.
Selig has been working closely with Paul Atkins, Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, on “Project Crypto”, a joint initiative aimed at aligning federal oversight of digital assets.
Among its objectives is the thorny matter of crypto-asset taxonomy.
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However, as the US is poised to liberalise, the EU is tightening the screws.
ESMA Says Crypto Perps May Be CFDs
In recent months, exchanges including Kraken, One Trading and Backpack have begun offering crypto perps to European traders. Coinbase has a dedicated webpage live, though without a formal launch announcement.
Others, such as Bitstamp, Gemini and Bybit, are said to be preparing similar moves.
Yet Europe’s markets watchdog may yet frustrate those ambitions. In a public statement released in February, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) warned that derivatives marketed as perpetual futures or contracts providing leveraged exposure to cryptoassets such as bitcoin or ether could fall within the definition of CFDs.
Should that interpretation prevail, such products would face the full panoply of retail protections.
Crucially, retail leverage would be limited to 2x under current CFD rules, a far cry from the 10x routinely advertised by European prep providers.
If so, much of the product’s speculative allure would evaporate.
Combined with the CFTC’s imminent framework, Europe’s crypto perpetuals market may find its wings clipped before it has properly left the runway.
