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Funding payments can replace expiration
Traditional futures expire on a set date and settle against the underlying asset. Perpetual futures have no scheduled expiry and instead use recurring funding payments to keep market prices close to the assets they track: when a perpetual trades above its reference price, longs generally pay shorts, and vice versa, creating an incentive for prices to converge.
Ondo told regulators the funding mechanism performs a function similar to expiration in a dated contract. Under its interpretation, the economic structure of the product matters more than whether it ends on a predetermined date. The filing also addresses updated margin systems and blockchain-based pricing data, which Ondo argues regulators could account for within current law, though the agencies would still decide how individual products satisfy listing, trading and investor-protection requirements.
The request mirrors a similar proposal from the Hyperliquid Policy Center, which asked regulators to treat equity perpetuals with futures-like characteristics as security futures after its markets processed more than $480 billion in cumulative notional volume in their first 10 months. That earlier framework proposal would have regulators examine how a contract is structured and traded before considering the asset it tracks.
$8 billion traded offshore in six weeks
Through a Panama-based affiliate, Ondo already offers stablecoin-settled perpetual futures referencing individual U.S.-listed stocks to eligible users outside the United States. The platform generated $8 billion in cumulative trading volume by Aug. 14, roughly six weeks after launch, with many referenced shares trading principally on U.S. exchanges even though American users cannot access the contracts.
"Bringing that activity back to the U.S. should not be an open question; it's something both agencies should actively pursue," the company said. The proposal would not automatically authorize every stock perpetual, as exchanges, brokers and clearing organizations would still need to comply with registration, listing, margin and customer-protection requirements for security futures. Former SEC counsel Ashley Ebersole recently estimated that creating a U.S. regulatory pathway for onchain perpetuals could take 10 to 12 months through rulemaking, or faster if regulators rely on existing authority or exemptions.
Ondo's tokenized securities business keeps growing
Alongside its derivatives proposal, Ondo operates one of the largest tokenized real-world asset businesses, ranked fourth among RWA managers with approximately $2.6 billion in distributed asset value. Ondo Stocks lists more than 440 tokenized stocks and ETFs across Ethereum, BNB Chain and Solana, with around $1.02 billion in asset value as of mid-August, and the company secured FINRA authorization connected to its U.S. tokenized-equity operations in late July after its tokenized products exceeded $2.5 billion in total value locked.
The move places Ondo among a growing chorus of firms, from prediction markets to traditional exchanges exploring tokenization, asking U.S. regulators to modernize rules for blockchain-based finance. The SEC and CFTC signed a memorandum of understanding in March to coordinate work where their authority overlaps, creating a formal process for resolving questions involving products that may fall under both securities and commodities law. Whether stock perpetuals get their onshore path may become an early test of that coordination.
