Key points

  • Coinbase Derivatives submitted a September 18 request for approval of cash-settled perpetual futures linked to individual U.S. equities and ETF shares.
  • The proposed contracts would trade from Sunday evening through Friday afternoon Eastern Time and use hourly funding to track their reference securities.
  • The CFTC filing remains approval-pending, and Coinbase said it would list the products only after regulatory clearance and any additional required approvals.

Coinbase Derivatives has asked U.S. regulators to approve a suite of perpetual futures tied to individual equities and exchange-traded funds, seeking to extend a trading structure popular in crypto markets to conventional securities. A Commodity Futures Trading Commission filing dated September 18 lists the proposal as approval-pending. Coinbase said it intends to list the contracts shortly after Commission approval, subject to any other required clearances, so the products are not yet available for trading.

What Coinbase filed

Submission 2026-62 describes cash-settled futures with no fixed expiration date. Each contract would reference one U.S.-listed stock or ETF share and would therefore be treated as a security futures product under joint CFTC and Securities and Exchange Commission oversight. Apple serves as the representative contract in the filing, while the broader eligible set is limited by exchange rules to liquid U.S.-listed securities and ETFs. The Wall Street Journal reported that Coinbase plans roughly 50 to 60 contracts, including Apple, Microsoft, Tesla and Nvidia, if regulators approve the structure.

Related reporting: Nadex registers with SEC for U.S. single-stock futures

How the perpetual design works

Unlike a dated future, a perpetual contract does not converge with its underlying asset through expiration. Coinbase instead proposes an hourly funding mechanism based on the gap between the futures price and a reference index for the underlying security. When the perpetual trades above the reference, long positions pay short positions; the direction reverses when it trades below. The filing caps the hourly funding rate at plus or minus 0.10% and says the contracts would be centrally cleared by Nodal Clear.

A wider trading window, not stock ownership

The proposed market would run from 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday to 5:00 p.m. on Friday. Coinbase says its reference indices would operate across the same window using institutional feeds spanning pre-market, regular, after-hours and overnight sessions. The contracts would provide price exposure only: holders would not own the underlying shares, receive dividends or gain voting rights. Corporate actions would instead be handled through contract adjustments intended to preserve economic exposure.

Why the filing matters

Approval would bring crypto-market-style perpetuals into the U.S. security-futures framework, where exchange rules, centralized clearing, margin requirements and coordinated surveillance apply. For Coinbase, that would broaden its domestic derivatives business beyond digital assets. For traders, it could add nearly continuous leveraged exposure to individual stocks without the need to roll an expiring contract. Those features also increase complexity: funding payments can accumulate, margin can amplify losses, and prices may behave differently when the underlying cash market is closed.

The regulatory question remains open

The submission argues that the contracts satisfy security-futures requirements and can be monitored for manipulation and insider trading across related markets. Regulators still must assess the listing standards, reference-price design, clearing arrangements and interaction with securities rules. The CFTC database labels the request pending, and the filing does not set a launch date or disclose final margin levels. Decrypt reported that Coinbase called this its first set of U.S. single-stock perpetuals and is targeting a later-2026 debut, but that timetable depends on approval.

What to watch next

The key milestone is a formal regulatory decision, followed by any additional approvals and detailed exchange notices covering the final product list, margin and risk controls. Until then, the filing signals Coinbase's direction rather than an operating market. The proposal also tests how far U.S. regulators will permit perpetual contracts to expand from crypto into equity-linked derivatives while keeping the products inside the established joint-oversight regime.

Sources

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