Ondo pushes SEC and CFTC to allow US stock perpetuals

Ondo Finance has asked the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to permit perpetual futures contracts on individual US stocks to be traded onshore. The tokenized-asset firm argues that existing securities laws are flexible enough to cover these instruments, even though no US exchange currently offers a single-name equity perpetual. The proposal lands as both regulators review how to bring more derivatives activity back to the United States, in part to keep trading volume from migrating to offshore platforms.

Why is Ondo targeting the SEC and CFTC right now?

The choice of venue reflects the split structure of US market oversight. The SEC regulates broker-dealers, exchanges, and the underlying securities, while the CFTC supervises futures, swaps, and most other derivatives. A stock perpetual sits at the intersection of both worlds: the contract behaves like a derivative, but the underlying asset is a regulated security. By writing to both agencies at once, Ondo is signaling that any workable framework will need sign-off from each side, not just one. The firm has framed the request as a market-structure question rather than a push for new statutory authority, arguing that current rules, with adjustments, can host these products.

What is a perpetual futures contract and why is it unusual for stocks?

Perpetual futures are derivatives that track an asset's price using a funding-rate mechanism, instead of a fixed expiry date. They were popularized by crypto exchanges such as BitMEX in 2018 and have since become a dominant product on offshore platforms like Binance and Bybit, where traders use them to bet on bitcoin, ether, and altcoins with high leverage. The US has run equity futures since the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's 1982 launch of the S&P 500 contract, but those products are limited to broad indexes, expire quarterly, and settle on standard terms. Single-name perpetuals, by contrast, have no expiry, use continuous funding, and concentrate risk on one company's stock, which is why no US exchange lists them and why regulators have not formally approved the structure.

What is the current US policy backdrop?

The current US policy backdrop combines a Trump-era push to make the country the crypto capital of the world with a more skeptical posture toward tokenized retail products. The SEC has, in 2024 and 2025, approved spot bitcoin and ether exchange-traded funds, and has signaled openness to more complex digital-asset structures, but it has also pulled back from approving leveraged single-stock ETFs and has cracked down on prediction markets. The CFTC, which oversees most derivatives, has moved to expand its role in crypto oversight, including a joint pilot with the SEC on reporting and surveillance. Underpinning both agencies' thinking is a 2025 White House report on digital assets that recommended clearer rules for tokenized securities and stronger coordination between the SEC and CFTC.

What does this mean for equity and crypto traders?

The near-term impact is limited because no US venue currently offers stock perpetuals. The more relevant question is whether a regulated framework would allow domestic exchanges to list products that today exist only offshore. Traders who already use offshore crypto perpetuals to gain leveraged exposure to altcoins would, in this scenario, see a parallel product open up for US equities, with potential margin offsets between the two markets. For stock traders, the appeal is similar to single-stock futures that have existed in Europe and Hong Kong: the ability to short or lever an individual name outside regular market hours, using a contract that does not expire. Critics, including some broker-dealers and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, have argued that single-stock futures amplify volatility and, in the 2000s, that fear contributed to a US moratorium that has only recently been relaxed in narrow forms.

Which companies and products sit at the center of this debate?

Ondo itself is best known for its tokenized US Treasury products, including OUSG and USDY, which give on-chain investors exposure to short-term government debt. The firm has expanded into tokenized equities, foreign exchange, and commodities, and has positioned itself as a bridge between traditional finance and decentralized protocols. Its exchange, Ondo Global Markets, has already launched tokenized versions of US stocks for non-US users, and the SEC filing represents the next step in bringing that concept to American retail and institutional investors. The request also implicates other tokenization firms such as Securitize, Real World Asset (RWA) protocols, and the spot crypto ETF issuers, all of whom have a stake in how the SEC defines the boundary between securities and derivatives in a tokenized world.

What are the legal and structural hurdles?

The core legal question is whether a single-name perpetual future, fully collateralized or margined, counts as a security, a swap, a futures contract, or some hybrid that triggers registration under the Securities Act, the Securities Exchange Act, and the Commodity Exchange Act. The 2000 Commodity Futures Modernization Act carved out a path for single-stock futures, and the CFTC and SEC issued a joint rule that ended a long moratorium, but volume never took off. The addition of a funding rate and continuous rebalancing complicates the picture, because the contract is technically a swap under CFTC rules and a security-based swap under SEC rules. Ondo's request is unlikely to clear both agencies before late 2026 at the earliest, and may require a formal no-action letter, a pilot program, or new rulemaking before any exchange can list the product. The 24/7 nature of crypto markets also raises questions about trading hours, margin calls, and how clearinghouses would handle weekend risk.

What should traders watch next?

The first concrete catalyst is any public response from the SEC and CFTC, which can range from a joint concept release to a quiet decline. The CFTC's Global Markets Advisory Committee has scheduled a September 2026 meeting on tokenized collateral, and industry groups are expected to file comment letters on the perpetuals request before then. Traders should also track any new spot crypto ETF approvals, because the SEC's posture there often signals how it will treat more complex tokenized products. The next big date is the year-end 2026 deadline for several provisions in the 2025 digital-asset report, after which the SEC is expected to publish updated guidance on tokenized securities. Until then, any US stock perpetuals are likely to remain in the same regulatory gray zone that offshore crypto derivatives have occupied for years, with US investors effectively cut off from the product.