CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig said on November 3 that perpetual futures on individual equity securities can begin trading on designated contract markets that also hold the required SEC registration for security futures products. The announcement extends the U.S. regulatory pathway for perpetual contracts beyond digital commodities into individual stocks.
The CFTC release sets out the venue condition: the designated contract market must also be registered with the SEC as a notice-registered national securities exchange authorized to trade security futures products. The reference to CFTC-registered exchanges therefore has a specific dual-registration scope.
In his full statement, Selig describes the equity perpetual contracts as “deemed approved” by the Commission under Regulation 40.3. He identifies them as security futures products under the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 and says they remain subject to applicable Commodity Exchange Act requirements, federal securities laws and both agencies’ regulatory frameworks.
For crypto-market readers, the development concerns where the perpetual contract format can be offered under U.S. regulation. Selig places the equity announcement after the agency’s earlier work on a bitcoin perpetual contract. The newly announced category concerns individual equity securities; it does not describe a new bitcoin contract being approved on November 3.
The release and statement establish the announced regulatory scope without naming the venue for these equity contracts or identifying the first stock contracts to be listed. They also provide no completed-trade or volume figures. Permission to begin trading and evidence that a particular market has opened remain separate facts.
The practical boundary is the combination of contract classification and venue registration. A headline about stock perpetuals alone does not specify the operator, listing schedule or individual contract terms; those details would require separate exchange documentation.