Coinbase takes regulatory step for leveraged stock trading

The crypto exchange filed a comment letter with the CFTC and SEC pushing for equity perpetual derivatives to become available to US investors.

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by Editorial Team

Sep. 3, 2026

Coinbase just told US regulators, in polite but unmistakable terms, that it wants American investors to be able to place leveraged, round-the-clock bets on stocks without ever owning a single share. The company filed a comment letter on August 25 with both the CFTC and SEC, responding to a joint request for input on how “swaps” and “security-based swaps” should be defined.

The real ask buried in the regulatory language: let US customers trade equity perpetual derivatives. These are synthetic contracts that track the price of stocks, never expire, and can be traded 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with leverage. Coinbase already offers this product to international users with up to 20x leverage on names like AAPL, MSFT, and GOOGL. Now it wants to bring that same capability stateside.

What Coinbase is actually proposing

The comment letter targets a specific regulatory gray zone. Right now, equity perpetual derivatives sit awkwardly between the jurisdictions of two agencies. The CFTC oversees futures and swaps. The SEC handles securities. When a product looks like a future tied to a security, both agencies have a claim, and neither has created a clean path for offering it to retail investors in the US.

Coinbase’s letter pushes for these products to be classified as “security futures,” a category that already exists in US law but has never been widely used for perpetual-style contracts. Beyond the classification question, Coinbase also recommended that regulators create alternative compliance frameworks. The filing also included a recommendation that regulated exchanges be permitted to list securities-related event contracts.

The “Everything Exchange” strategy

This regulatory push fits into what Coinbase has been calling its “Everything Exchange” strategy. The vision is to combine stocks, ETFs, crypto, and derivatives into a single platform where users can trade anything, anytime.

US customers gained access to zero-commission spot trading of stocks and ETFs starting in February 2026, with extended trading hours that go beyond what traditional brokerages typically offer. For international customers, Coinbase currently lists stock perpetual futures covering seven major companies, including Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet.

Users outside the US can take positions with up to 20x leverage, meaning a $1,000 deposit could control $20,000 worth of synthetic stock exposure. The contracts never expire, unlike traditional futures, so there’s no need to roll positions forward each month or quarter.

Why this matters for the broader market

Perpetual futures originated in crypto markets, where they’ve become the dominant trading instrument. On major crypto exchanges, perpetual futures volumes routinely dwarf spot trading. The product’s appeal is simple: leverage, no expiration dates, and the ability to trade at any hour.

US stock markets operate roughly 6.5 hours per day, five days a week. Perpetual futures tied to those stocks could trade continuously, creating price discovery outside traditional sessions. If equity perpetuals are treated as security futures, they would fall under a joint regulatory framework with requirements from both the CFTC and SEC, including potential capital requirements, position limits, and customer protection rules.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.