Kalshi, Coinbase stock perpetuals at risk as CFTC deadline approaches

A key deadline arrives tomorrow in the rivalry among the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), Kalshi, and Coinbase over stock perpetuals — crypto-style derivatives that rely on continuously rolling futures funding to create leveraged instruments for speculating on stock prices.

Although a US district judge has indicated she believes "the CFTC lacks statutory authority to allow perpetual derivatives on individuals stocks to be offered to retail investors," the commission chaired by Michael Selig must argue why that preliminary view is incorrect by tomorrow if it wants to file an opposition.

The deadline stems from a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in Manhattan against the Commodity Futures Trading Commission by a trade group whose members include the powerful CBOE and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Securities.

The Capital Markets Alliance (CMA) is trying to stop several approvals for stock perpetual listings.

On Tuesday, Kalshi launched four contracts with leverage up to 4.9x: Costco, McDonald’s, Qualcomm, and Amgen.

The list has since grown to include dozens of stock perpetuals, such as Nvidia, Tesla, and SpaceX.

Shortly after the lawsuit was filed on Tuesday, US District Judge Valerie Caproni directed the CFTC to answer by Friday, November 6. While she refused a temporary restraining order because the harm declarations were "conjectural," Caproni ruled that CMA is "likely to succeed on the merits of its claim."

By tomorrow, the CFTC must persuade the judge that its preliminary conclusion is mistaken.

Doubting CFTC authority over stock perps

The CFTC’s 45-day review period for these perpetuals ended on November 2 without any substantive objection.

The following morning, CFTC Chairman Michael Selig hailed the introduction of perpetuals on US exchanges as a way to attract traders away from what he called "offshore, and often unregulated, venues." Kalshi followed by quickly launching several stock perpetuals.

On September 18, 2026, three exchanges — KalshiEX, Coinbase Derivatives, and Bitnomial Exchange — submitted applications to list cash-settled perpetuals on US equities.

Coinbase Derivatives proposed an equity perpetual suite centered on Apple’s common stock. Meanwhile, Bitnomial applied for Alphbet perpetuals and also included Apple among its ten stock perpetuals.

The CMA alleged that CFTC rules "invited a parale, syntetic market in US stocks to grow outside the exclusive jurisdiction" of the SEC, posing a risk to US equity markets that handle over $1 trillion in trades each day.

Judge Caproni concurred that single-stock perpetuals "seem to represent a major disruption to the equities market" and scheduled CMA’s response for this month.

Should the court side with CMA, many stock perpetuals at exchanges such as Kalshi, Bitnomial, and Coinbase could be suspended.