U.S. just legalized crypto perpetual futures — long Coinbase as first-mover winner
The top U.S. derivatives regulator just cleared the way for crypto perpetual futures contracts to trade on American exchanges for the first time. Coinbase and Kalshi are among the first platforms approved to offer these popular trading products domestically.
Idea
Perpetual futures are the most popular crypto trading product globally, but until now they've only been available on offshore exchanges. Bringing them onshore to regulated U.S. platforms is a massive revenue opportunity for Coinbase, which was specifically named in the CFTC's approval. This is a structural shift — U.S. retail and institutional traders who avoided offshore exchanges can now access these products through Coinbase. Despite Bitcoin ETFs bleeding $2.8B recently, this regulatory win directly benefits the infrastructure providers rather than crypto prices themselves, making Coinbase the cleaner play.