CFTC’s First Batch of Bitcoin Perpetual Futures Contracts: The U.S. Officially Opens the Cryptocurrency “Perpetual Contract” Market

According to CoinDesk, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approved, for the first time on May 29 local time, a regulated exchange to list and trade Bitcoin perpetual futures contracts (“Perps”), marking the first such case in U.S. regulatory history. CFTC Chair Mike Selig characterized this move as a “significant milestone,” stating that perpetual contracts serve as foundational risk-management and price-discovery tools in global crypto-asset markets, and that the CFTC will provide an actionable regulatory framework for such contracts while restricting excessive leverage and systemic risk. Previously, perpetual contract trading had long migrated to non-U.S. jurisdictions due to the absence of regulatory oversight. The CFTC has not yet disclosed the names of the first batch of approved exchanges, and this policy has not yet been elevated to the level of formal regulation—meaning it remains subject to potential reversal in the future.