CFTC Filing Submitted by OG.com for Individual Stock Perpetual Futures Trading
Following its recent separation from Crypto.com, OG.com has submitted a regulatory application alongside Coinbase, Kalshi, and Kraken's parent company Payward to offer perpetual futures contracts on US individual stocks.
In pursuit of US regulatory authorization, OG.com Markets has submitted an application to provide perpetual futures contracts linked to individual equities, joining a broader industry effort to introduce this widely-used derivatives instrument to American stock markets.
According to a filing submitted Thursday to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), OG.com has put forward new regulations that would enable the platform to list perpetual single-stock futures that are cash-settled, possess no expiration date, and operate around the clock, five days weekly.
The company recently emerged as an independent prediction markets and derivatives trading platform following its separation from cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com, with a market valuation reaching $5 billion. During the announcement of the spin-off, CEO Kris Marszalek indicated the platform's intention to broaden its offerings beyond prediction markets to encompass futures and perpetual contract products.
Following the separation transaction, Robinhood acquired an ownership position in OG.com through a multi-year partnership agreement that grants access to its CFTC-regulated derivatives exchange infrastructure and clearinghouse facilities for prediction market operations.
Perpetual futures, commonly referred to as "perps," differ from conventional futures contracts by eliminating expiration dates, which enables market participants to hold positions indefinitely without the need to periodically transition to new contract cycles. BitMEX originally introduced this innovative product to the cryptocurrency sector in 2016.
Perpetual futures push expands into US stocks
Applications to provide perpetual futures contracts tied to individual US equities were simultaneously filed on Sept. 18 by Coinbase, Payward (Kraken's parent company) via its Bitnomial exchange platform, and prediction marketplace Kalshi.
These regulatory submissions emerged following actions by US regulatory bodies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and CFTC, which moved forward with cryptocurrency-related initiatives even as the CLARITY Act encountered obstacles and did not progress in the Senate on Sept. 15.
Within days following the legislative vote, the SEC authorized restricted onchain trading capabilities for tokenized US stock instruments under provisions of its Innovation Exemption framework, concurrent with the CFTC broadening regulatory accommodations for software vendors that facilitate user connections to regulated derivatives trading platforms, including those providing perpetual contract products.
Months prior to these recent developments, the CFTC had already commenced establishing the regulatory foundation necessary for perpetual futures contracts.
During May, the regulatory agency instituted an individualized review framework for evaluating perpetual contract applications and granted approval for Kalshi's Bitcoin perpetual futures offering, subsequently followed in June by temporary regulatory relief that permitted certain registered exchanges to restructure their existing cryptocurrency futures contracts into instruments without expiration requirements.