Coinbase Moves to Bring Stock Perpetual Futures to the US

The company submitted Form 1-N through Coinbase Derivatives, LLC to operate as a security futures exchange, alongside Form BD-N from Coinbase Financial Markets, Inc. to act as a limited-purpose broker-dealer. These filings leverage existing oversight structures shared by the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, though they stop short of establishing a general-purpose stock exchange. The company has not yet disclosed a launch timeline, specific underlying assets, or proposed leverage limits for the domestic market.

This initiative mirrors the international exchange model Coinbase launched in March, which currently allows non-U.S. users to trade synthetic exposure to major technology stocks like Apple, Nvidia, and Tesla. Unlike standard futures, these perpetual instruments lack expiration dates and rely on funding mechanisms to align market prices with the underlying equity. While the international product offers up to 10x leverage on stocks and 20x on ETFs, it remains unclear if these terms will translate to the U.S. regulatory environment. The move arrives amid ongoing industry debate regarding the classification of perpetual contracts, with traditional exchanges like CME Group challenging the CFTC on whether such instruments should be regulated as swaps rather than futures. Coinbase currently maintains that these filings represent a compliant path to bringing sophisticated derivatives to a broader domestic audience.