1 hour ago
10
President Donald Trump has publicly acknowledged crypto perpetuals for the first time, folding the derivative instrument into his broader vision of making the US the global hub for digital asset trading.
The Truth Social post positioned perpetuals alongside Bitcoin as financial products that US regulatory policy had previously driven offshore. Trump framed the shift as part of building what he called a “FUTURE-PROOF Digital Asset Market Structure.”
What are perpetuals, and why does this matter
Think of perpetual futures as a bet on an asset’s price that never expires. Traditional futures contracts have a set end date. Perpetuals don’t. They use a mechanism called a “funding rate” to keep their price tethered to the spot market, essentially charging or paying traders at regular intervals depending on which side of the trade is more crowded.
The instrument was born in crypto. BitMEX launched the first BTC perpetual swap back in 2016, and it quickly became the most popular way to trade with leverage in digital assets globally.
Almost all of that trading volume has lived offshore. Platforms like Binance and Bybit have historically dominated the perpetuals market, while US-based exchanges watched from the sidelines due to regulatory ambiguity.
The regulatory machinery is already moving
On April 21, 2025, the CFTC issued a Request for Comment specifically focused on perpetual derivatives. Shortly after, Bitnomial self-certified what became the first US perpetual futures contract.
CFTC Chair Michael Selig suggested in March 2026 that a formal framework for crypto-linked perpetual futures would be established “within weeks.”
The GENIUS Act, enacted in July 2025, was designed explicitly to bolster onshore trading of digital assets, giving US exchanges the legal footing they needed to compete with their offshore counterparts.
Kraken and Coinbase have both initiated or announced plans to expand perpetuals trading for US customers.
What this means for investors
Perpetuals are, by a wide margin, the most traded instrument in crypto. They typically dwarf spot trading volumes on any given day.
Trump also expressed support for CFTC authority over prediction markets in a separate Truth Social post, suggesting the administration sees the derivatives regulator as the natural home for a broad swath of crypto trading products.
The risk worth watching is leverage itself. Perpetuals allow traders to take on positions many times larger than their capital. Offshore platforms routinely offer 100x leverage or more. How US regulators handle leverage limits will determine whether these products attract serious volume or remain watered-down versions of what’s available elsewhere.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
English (US) ·