CFTC clears single-stock perpetual futures for US exchanges: what's approved, what isn't, and what algo traders should know

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) cleared single-stock perpetual futures for trading on US exchanges on 3 November 2026, in a statement from Chairman Selig (CFTC release 9319-26). It is an approval, not a launch: no exchange has announced a start date. The same day, a group of market participants sued to overturn it, according to Cointelegraph.

What's confirmed

• Approved: US exchanges may list perpetual futures on single stocks, following the CFTC's 3 November statement.
• Who applied: Coinbase, Kalshi, Bitnomial and OG.com had filed to offer them, according to Cointelegraph.
• Challenged: the Capital Markets Alliance, whose members include Cboe and Citadel Securities, sued the same day to overturn the approval. A separate CME lawsuit over crypto perpetuals is still pending.
• Not yet known: which exchange launches first, when, on which stocks, and with what margin and funding rules.

This is a different development from ICE's plan to offer Hyperliquid-linked perpetuals to US traders, which we covered in ICE and Hyperliquid perps in the US.

What a perpetual future is

A perpetual future tracks an underlying price but never expires. Instead of rolling contracts, longs and shorts pay each other a funding rate at set intervals to keep the contract price close to the underlying. When the contract trades above the stock, longs pay shorts; when below, shorts pay longs.

What it means for backtesting a perps strategy

• Funding is a cost or income. A strategy that holds positions for days pays or receives funding every interval. A backtest that ignores it can be badly wrong, especially for trend strategies that hold through crowded moves.
• Leverage and liquidation. Perps are usually traded with leverage, so the path matters: a position can be liquidated on an intraday move even if it would have recovered.
• New markets have little history. When US stock perps launch, there won't be years of contract data. Backtests will rely on the underlying stock's prices plus an assumption about funding, which should be stated and stress tested.

If you trade crypto perps today, our guide to exporting Hyperliquid trade history shows how to get your fills, including funding, for analysis. When you build a strategy in Strategy Lab, test it with higher costs and on other markets to see whether the edge survives.

We'll update this post when an exchange announces a launch date.