US CFTC approves first bitcoin perpetual futures contracts for regulated exchange

Perpetual futures, the single most traded instrument in all of crypto, have finally crossed the regulatory threshold in the United States. Bitnomial Exchange self-certified the first bitcoin perpetual futures contracts under its Designated Contract Market status with the CFTC on April 23, 2025, with trading going live on April 28.

For years, “perps” have been the domain of offshore exchanges like Binance, Bybit, and OKX, where US traders technically weren’t supposed to be playing but, well, were.

What actually happened, and why perps matter

Unlike traditional futures that expire on a set date, perps never expire. They use a funding rate mechanism to keep the contract price tethered to the spot price, letting traders hold leveraged positions indefinitely.

Bitnomial’s contracts use eight-hour funding intervals to align with the mechanics traders are already familiar with from offshore venues. The contracts feature physical delivery, crypto settlement, and crypto margining. That’s a meaningful departure from the cash-settled Bitcoin futures that have been available on CME since 2017. Instead of settling in dollars, Bitnomial’s perps settle in actual Bitcoin, and traders post crypto as collateral.

Bitnomial holds full CFTC licenses as a Designated Contract Market, Derivatives Clearing Organization, and Futures Commission Merchant. That triple licensing structure means the exchange handles trading, clearing, and customer funds under one regulatory umbrella.

Trading launched with access restricted to institutional participants.

Coinbase follows, competition heats up

On June 26, 2025, Coinbase Derivatives self-certified its own perpetual futures products: nano Bitcoin (BTC-PERP) and nano Ether (ETH-PERP) contracts. Those contracts became effective on July 21, 2025.

The contracts carry five-year expirations and 12-hour funding intervals. Coinbase structured its products with a distant expiration while mimicking the economics of a genuine perp.

Payward, Kraken’s parent company, acquired Bitnomial, giving one of the largest US crypto exchanges a direct pipeline into CFTC-regulated derivatives.

Why this matters for the market

Offshore perp exchanges have a history of questionable liquidation engines, socialized losses, and opaque insurance funds. CFTC-regulated venues operate under rules around capital requirements, risk management, and customer fund segregation that simply don’t exist in the Cayman Islands.

By early 2026, CFTC leadership was already discussing frameworks for additional true perpetual futures products, ones without any expiration date at all.

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