Coinbase has filed two SEC notice registrations as it works to bring stock perpetuals to the United States, setting up the first regulated domestic path for leveraged single-stock perpetual contracts and extending a derivatives buildout that has already crossed into Canada and offshore markets.
The filings, dated Sept. 1 and announced in a Sept. 3 post on X (Twitter), show Coinbase Derivatives, LLC registering as a security futures exchange through Form 1-N, while Coinbase Financial Markets, Inc. submitted Form BD-N to act as a limited-purpose security futures broker-dealer. "We're working to bring single stock perps to the US," the company wrote — offering no launch date, no list of supported stocks and no proposed leverage limits.
How the stock perpetuals filing works
Under SEC rules, Form 1-N lets an exchange already regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission register for the sole purpose of trading security futures products. Coinbase Derivatives has operated as a CFTC-designated contract market since 2020, and the notice supplies the SEC with information about its ownership, operations, rules, trading systems and disciplinary procedures. The filing does not convert Coinbase into a general-purpose stock exchange — Nasdaq is not the comparison — and neither document shown in the announcement contains final contract terms or confirmed clearance for launch.
The brokerage side follows the same logic. Form BD-N allows an eligible CFTC registrant — Coinbase Financial Markets is already a futures commission merchant — to register as a broker-dealer solely for trading security futures. Futures on individual securities and narrow-based stock indexes are classified as security futures products, carrying features of both securities and futures and placing them under joint SEC-CFTC authority. Coinbase says it plans to work with both agencies as it brings the products to market.
An international product waiting for a domestic permit
Stock perpetuals are not a new Coinbase concept — only a new U.S. one. The company launched stock perpetual futures for eligible customers outside the United States in March, expressly barring U.S. persons. The international lineup provides synthetic exposure to Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta and Tesla, plus SPY and QQQ exchange-traded funds, trading around the clock with leverage up to 10x on stocks and 20x on ETFs, settled in USDC and cross-margined with other holdings. Perpetual holders receive no shareholder rights — no voting, no dividends — only price exposure maintained through a funding mechanism.
Coinbase has not said whether its domestic contracts would match those specifications, trade 24/7 or settle in USDC. The distinction between what exists offshore and what the SEC will allow onshore is precisely the question the filings begin to answer. Binance took the long-only options route into the same territory, while Coinbase's Canadian futures launch showed the company's preference for regulated expansion market by market. The U.S. filing extends that playbook: file first, launch second, and let the agencies shape the final product.
The perp classification fight shadows the rollout
Coinbase's plan arrives while U.S. courts and regulators are still fighting over what a perpetual contract legally is. In June, CME Group sued the CFTC over its treatment of crypto perpetuals offered through platforms including Coinbase and Kalshi, arguing the contracts fit the definition of swaps under the Dodd-Frank Act and should not be regulated as ordinary futures. The CFTC rejected the position and called the case "frivolous," and the dispute remains unresolved — meaning the legal category of the very product Coinbase wants to sell domestically is contested.
The market signal, meanwhile, is unambiguous. Coinbase stock jumped roughly 10% on the announcement to about $192.70, and company data showed Coinbase Derivatives handling about $1.75 billion in 24-hour volume against approximately $9.7 billion on the international exchange. The 2026 groundwork is extensive: CFTC relief in May connecting U.S. institutions to Deribit, approval in June for access to global crypto perps, and 23 futures markets launched in Canada on Sept. 2. Exchanges worldwide are converging on the same thesis — that the boundary between crypto trading and stock trading is dissolving, and the platforms that cross it first with regulatory cover will own the flow.
