Coinbase seeks SEC greenlight to list 24/7 equity perpetuals

Coinbase has asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for approval to list equity perpetuals, the exchange's chief policy officer Faryar Shirzad said Thursday in a post on X, describing a notice registration form filed earlier this week.

"Equity perps have proven demand internationally, and we're excited at the prospect of a regulated pathway for U.S. investors," Shirzad said. He added that Coinbase would also need sign-off from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission before any listing could move ahead.

Product already live offshore

Coinbase rolled out perpetual futures in March, giving users outside the U.S. access to contracts tied to individual stocks including Apple, Microsoft, NVIDIA and Amazon. Perpetuals, or perps, are futures contracts that carry no expiration date, letting traders bet on an asset's price without owning it directly. Most of that market currently runs through offshore venues that operate outside U.S. regulation.

U.S. regulators have been edging the door open. In May, CFTC staff cleared KalshiEX and Coinbase to list bitcoin perpetual futures domestically. A month later, the agency issued a request for comment on crude oil perpetual contracts and 24/7 trading.

Attention has also centred on Hyperliquid, a crypto derivatives platform that has become popular with perpetual traders. Last month at the White House, President Donald Trump said CFTC Chair Michael Selig was working to bring Hyperliquid into the U.S. in a "fully compliant and legal fashion." Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Hyperliquid Labs is seeking an onshore U.S. presence through a deal with Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken.