The encrypted trading model accelerates the "landing" in the U.S. stock market! Coinbase (COIN.US) applies to launch single-stock perpetual futures.

One of the largest cryptocurrency trading platforms in the United States, Coinbase (COIN.US), is taking a key regulatory step by seeking permission to allow American investors to engage in leveraged trading of single stocks through perpetual futures without actually holding the stocks. If approved, this would introduce one of the most popular trading models from the cryptocurrency market into the regulated US market, further blurring the lines between traditional securities and digital asset trading. This week, Coinbase submitted an application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch single-stock perpetual futures. The company will subsequently collaborate with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to advance the relevant approvals, aiming to launch the product in the U.S. market as early as this year. At the time of the announcement, the cryptocurrency market experienced significant gains on Thursday, with Bitcoin breaking through $80,000 again. Coinbase's stock price surged over 10% that day, marking its largest single-day increase since May. However, the stock has still fallen approximately 35% over the past year. Coinbase is targeting stock perpetual futures, allowing leveraged trading without holding the underlying shares. The single-stock perpetual futures that Coinbase plans to introduce to the U.S. market have a clear distinction from regular stock trading. Investors do not need to actually buy or hold the shares of the related companies; instead, they can bet on the price fluctuations through derivative contracts linked to stock prices. These products can also utilize leverage, amplifying potential profits and losses. One of the biggest differences from traditional futures is that perpetual futures do not have a fixed expiration date. Investors can theoretically hold their positions indefinitely, without the need to roll over contracts like traditional futures. At the same time, these products are expected to overcome the traditional U.S. stock trading hours limitation, achieving a trading model closer to that of the cryptocurrency market which operates around the clock. Perpetual contracts have long been among the most actively traded products in the global cryptocurrency market, particularly favored by high-frequency and leveraged traders, but American investors have previously found it challenging to obtain similar products through domestically regulated platforms. Earlier this year, Coinbase began offering single-stock perpetual futures to international customers, and now it aims to bring this model back to the U.S. market. The cryptocurrency trading model is beginning to "land" in traditional financial markets. Coinbase's move is not an isolated case. As digital asset trading platforms continually expand into stocks, stock indices, and other traditional financial assets, a complete set of trading models formed in the cryptocurrency market is gradually entering the U.S. regulated financial system. Prediction market platform Kalshi has previously received approval from the CFTC to offer Bitcoin perpetual futures and is currently applying to launch similar contracts linked to stock indices and other traditional markets. If regulators further allow single-stock perpetual futures into the U.S. market, the potential impact could be even broader. This means that American retail investors may soon access leveraged, non-expiring, and around-the-clock trading tools that were previously concentrated in overseas cryptocurrency exchanges, through regulated platforms. The decentralized derivatives platform Hyperliquid is one of the main beneficiaries of this trading model. Stock-linked contracts and other perpetual products have become an important part of the recent speculative trading boom, driving a rapid increase in trading volume on some offshore and decentralized platforms. Coordination between the SEC and CFTC oversight is key. However, whether Coinbase can successfully launch single-stock perpetual futures still depends on the attitude of U.S. regulators. Since these products combine traditional securities like stocks with futures derivative structures, they may involve regulatory authority from both the SEC and the CFTC. Coinbase has first submitted an application to the SEC and will next work with the CFTC to advance product approvals. The cryptocurrency industry has also recently intensified its lobbying efforts with regulators, hoping that the U.S. will allow investors to trade perpetual contracts. The industry lobbying organization Blockchain Association submitted a comment letter to the SEC and CFTC at the end of August, urging the two agencies to enhance coordination and further clarify the regulatory rules applicable to perpetual futures. This means that whether the U.S. opens up the perpetual contract market is no longer merely a product approval issue for a single platform, but could also become an important test of how the SEC and CFTC reassign and coordinate regulatory authority over digital assets and new derivatives. CME has already entered the market, intensifying competition in single-stock derivatives. Traditional financial exchanges are also expanding their single-stock derivatives market. CME Group Inc. Class A (CME) launched single-stock futures covering over 50 large U.S. stocks in July this year. However, there are still significant differences between traditional single-stock futures and the perpetual futures Coinbase hopes to introduce. Traditional futures usually have a clear expiration date, while the perpetual contracts Coinbase plans to launch have no fixed expiration date, closely resembling the product structure familiar to cryptocurrency traders. If Coinbase obtains approval, the U.S. stock derivatives market could see a new competitive landscape, with traditional exchanges continuing to offer standardized futures products while cryptocurrency trading platforms attempt to introduce around-the-clock trading, perpetual contracts, and leverage mechanisms into traditional assets. This also reflects a broader transformation occurring in the digital asset industry, where competition among crypto platforms is no longer limited to digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum, but is gradually extending to stocks, stock indices, and other traditional financial products. Coinbase seeks to reduce its reliance on spot crypto trading. For Coinbase, promoting stock perpetual futures also has more direct commercial significance. For years, the company has sought to lessen its dependence on traditional cryptocurrency spot trading. Coinbases trading revenues are highly correlated with cryptocurrency market cycles. When digital assets like Bitcoin enter a bull market, and trading is active, the company typically earns significant fee income; but when the crypto market enters a downturn and trading volume shrinks, its revenues and profitability can be significantly impacted. Therefore, the company has been diversifying its income sources by expanding into derivatives, stablecoins, institutional business, and other financial services in recent years. Introducing stock perpetual futures to the U.S. market could allow Coinbase to more directly compete for the trading demand of traditional stock investors. Especially if the product can ultimately achieve around-the-clock trading, Coinbases positioning may further evolve from being merely a cryptocurrency exchange to a comprehensive trading platform covering both digital assets and traditional financial assets. The stock price surged over 10%, marking the best single-day performance since May. Coinbase's stock price surged over 10% on Thursday, marking its largest single-day increase since May. The rise that day was not solely driven by the news of stock perpetual futures. The entire digital asset market saw significant strength on Thursday, with Bitcoin rising nearly 6% in the past 24 hours, breaking through $80,000 again, and major cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and XRP also rising simultaneously. Cryptocurrency concept stocks also experienced a broad increase, indicating that as the market reduces bets on the Federal Reserves rate hike in September, funds are flowing back into risk assets. Despite this, Coinbase's stock price has still fallen approximately 35% over the past year, making the importance of expanding its revenue sources even more pronounced. If single-stock perpetual futures ultimately receive approval from the SEC and CFTC, Coinbase will not only add a new derivatives business but could also open a trading realm far larger than the traditional cryptocurrency market. More importantly, this would be another sign of the penetration of cryptocurrency trading models into the U.S. traditional financial market. Trading mechanisms such as non-expiring contracts, leveraged trading, and around-the-clock markets, which previously existed mainly in the crypto world, are gradually entering the stock and stock index markets, and Coinbase is attempting to be a key driver of this transition.