In brief
- Coinbase will offer U.S.-regulated perpetual-style futures for Bitcoin and Ether starting July 21.
- The launch provides a domestic alternative to offshore derivatives, which dominate global crypto markets.
- Coinbase shares hit an all-time high of $375.07 on Thursday as demand for regulated crypto products and infrastructure grows.
Coinbase Global Inc. will launch US Perpetual-Style Futures on July 21, becoming one of the first exchanges to offer regulated perpetual futures contracts in the U.S.—a market that offshore platforms have dominated despite representing upwards of 90% of global crypto trading activity.
The crypto exchange announced Thursday it will debut nano Bitcoin (0.01 BTC) and nano Ethereum (0.10 ETH) perpetual-style futures contracts, designed to closely track spot prices while offering leverage and remaining fully compliant with CFTC regulations.
"You asked for it, we built it," Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong tweeted regarding the launch.
The rollout addresses a “critical gap in the domestic derivatives market,” where U.S.-based traders have been forced to use offshore exchanges that "introduce regulatory, custody, and counterparty risks," Coinbase said in its statement.
Perpetual-style futures are a type of crypto derivative that mimic standard futures contracts but without a fixed expiration date, allowing traders to take long or short positions with leverage while tracking the underlying asset's price.
These contracts have grown to dominate global crypto trading but have largely been unavailable in the US market due to regulatory restrictions. Now, those rules are beginning to shift in the industry’s favor under President Donald Trump.
The new contracts will function as long-dated futures with five-year expirations, incorporating hourly funding mechanisms to maintain spot price alignment through 24/7 trading.
Seize the moment
“The timing aligns with what appears to be a crypto-friendly shift under the Trump administration, encouraging innovation through lighter regulatory pressure,” Mohith Agadi, founder of Fact Protocol, told Decrypt.
“We’re incredibly proud to bring perpetual-style futures to the US,” Coinbase’s Boris Ilyevsky said in the statement, describing the products as “a transformative milestone” for the domestic market.
The announcement follows a sharp rise in Coinbase’s share price.
Coinbase shares surged to a record closing high of $375.07 on Thursday, breaking its previous peak of $357.39 from November 2021, as per Google Finance data.
The gain caps a remarkable year for the San Francisco-based exchange, which became the first crypto firm to join the S&P 500 in May and has seen its stock price climb 50% year-to-date from $256 in January.
"Coinbase's stock surge reflects growing public market interest in crypto-native companies,’ Agadi said. "With Circle successfully going public, investors are clearly signaling confidence in the long-term value of regulated crypto infrastructure."
An analyst at investment bank Benchmark has raised his price target for Coinbase to $421, citing the company’s European expansion and USDC integration, as per a previous report by Decrypt.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair