Perpetual futures for crypto are gaining momentum in United States amid concerns over risk to retail traders. Coinbase was planning to launch perpetual futures that are compliant with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for US customers. While BitMEX first launched crypto perps back in 2016, US customers and exchanges haven’t had access to them. One of the main reasons US financial authorities have taken action against exchanges offering perps is the high-risk nature of the contracts. However, recent changes in guidance among federal regulators after the election of US President Donald Trump changed that. Crypto perpetual futures contracts allow investors to speculate on the future price of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Regular futures have an expiration date, but perps can be held in perpetuity. One of the key concerns about risk surrounds the ability for perp traders to highly leverage their positions, sometimes up to 100 times. These allow traders to hold a much larger position with a small amount of capital. For example, with 10 times leverage, a trader with $1,000 can hold a $10,000 position.

Perps can be an effective hedging tool that allows users the flexibility of entering or exiting a position with higher returns thanks to the leverage, but they are also risky. If a market dips and the price falls below the trader’s maintenance margin, the trader’s position can be quickly liquidated. Even a small price fluctuation could wipe out a trader’s position. A 5% decrease in a 20-times leveraged position would result in liquidation, and the trader would lose their entire base investment. In 2023, risk concerns led CFTC to issue an advisory note that companies offering derivatives like perps should implement increased security protection for the users. But now the CFTC guidance seems to be changing. The rules for the US crypto industry are changing fast under the Trump administration. On April 21, the CFTC opened up to the public comment regarding perps and derivatives markets. Just two days later, the CFTC-regulated contract market maker (DCM) Bitnomial self-certified a legal perpetual futures contract. Under the commodities law, DCMs can self-certify derivative products by filing a prospectus with the CFTC.

The CFTC agency checks that the product complies with all of the requirements of the Commodity Exchange Act and relevant CFTC regulations. It also checks that the proposed product is not susceptible to manipulation and that there are customer protections. Perpetual derivatives represent a sizeable chunk of the crypto market. According to data from CoinMarketCap, open interest on perpetuals in the crypto market was $704 billion as of June 20 2025. The perpetual futures are not massive product for the passive investors. They are for active traders and active market participants like some of the retail investors.