Crypto.com registers with SEC for single-stock futures, pursues stock perpetuals
DeFi & Yields ·
The exchange has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to offer single-stock futures and is separately negotiating with the SEC and the CFTC to bring perpetual futures on U.S. stocks to market.
The registration marks a move by Crypto.com beyond its core digital-asset business into derivatives tied to traditional equities, a product category historically confined to regulated futures exchanges and broker-dealers. Single-stock futures let traders take leveraged long or short positions on individual company shares without owning the underlying stock, while perpetual futures — a structure more commonly associated with crypto trading venues — have no expiration date and are settled through periodic funding payments rather than physical delivery.
Because equity derivatives fall under SEC oversight while many futures products are supervised by the CFTC, launching U.S. stock perpetuals requires Crypto.com to work through both regulators simultaneously, according to The Block. That dual-track process reflects the jurisdictional overlap the two agencies have been navigating more broadly as digital-asset and tokenized-securities products blur the line between securities and commodities markets.
The filing lands amid a wider shift in how U.S. regulators are treating crypto-adjacent financial products. Separate developments in the same period include the SEC eliminating a longstanding $25,000 pattern day trader minimum after 25 years, with FINRA moving to a risk-based intraday margin approach instead, and the agency issuing staff guidance on broker-dealer registration requirements for crypto transaction interfaces. Other firms, including Ondo Finance, have also been seeking formal SEC accommodations — in that case a no-action letter to record tokenized securities on Ethereum — signaling a broader push by digital-asset companies to formalize their standing with securities regulators rather than operate in ambiguity.
Two sources are currently tracking the Crypto.com filing, and neither has disclosed a timeline for approval or launch of either product. It remains unclear whether the SEC and CFTC will reach a joint framework that permits perpetual-style structures on U.S. equities, a format that does not currently exist in traditional markets, or whether Crypto.com's single-stock futures registration will move forward on a separate, faster track. What form any approved product would take, and when it might reach traders, has not yet been specified.