US regulators finally approve crypto perpetuals — long Coinbase as the first-mover winner
The top U.S. derivatives regulator just gave the green light for crypto perpetual futures contracts to trade on American soil for the first time. Coinbase and Kalshi are the first platforms cleared to offer these products, which have until now only existed on offshore exchanges.
Idea
Perpetual futures are the most popular crypto trading product worldwide, generating massive fees on offshore exchanges like Binance. For years, U.S. regulators blocked them domestically. Now the CFTC has specifically named Coinbase as receiving a no-action letter, meaning Coinbase will be the first major U.S. platform to offer these contracts. That's a direct new revenue stream that Wall Street hasn't fully priced in yet. When a company gets first-mover access to a product category this big, the stock tends to re-rate higher over the following weeks as analysts update their revenue models.