Key Highlights
- On August 24, Ondo Finance submitted three comment letters to the SEC and CFTC requesting approval for perpetual futures contracts on individual US equities under current security futures regulations.
- The company’s Panama-registered entity currently provides stablecoin-settled stock perpetuals to offshore clients, generating $8 billion in total trading volume approximately six weeks post-launch.
- Ondo contends that perpetual contracts can qualify as security futures products without requiring fixed settlement dates.
- Following a March coordination agreement between the SEC and CFTC, both agencies are examining how current regulations apply to blockchain-based derivatives and tokenized assets.
- President Trump’s comments about bringing Hyperliquid to the US legally drove HYPE token prices up more than 20%.
Ondo Finance has formally petitioned American financial regulators to authorize perpetual futures contracts on individual US equities, asserting that existing legislation provides sufficient legal foundation for these instruments.
The tokenized asset platform submitted three detailed comment letters to both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on August 24. The company maintained that new legislative action is unnecessary to enable stock perpetual futures trading.
Ondo’s Regulatory Proposal
Ondo is requesting that the SEC and CFTC classify perpetual stock futures as security futures products within the framework of current regulations. The submitted letters address product categorization, collateral requirements, and the incorporation of blockchain-sourced market data.
Central to Ondo’s position is the assertion that perpetual contracts should qualify as security futures products despite lacking predetermined expiration dates. Conventional futures contracts settle at specified times. Perpetual contracts instead employ continuous funding rate mechanisms to maintain price alignment with the underlying equity.
In this structure, when a perpetual contract’s price exceeds the reference asset’s value, long position holders transfer payments to short position holders. This payment flow inverts when the contract price falls below the reference level. According to Ondo, this funding rate system serves the identical economic purpose as traditional futures expiration.
The firm’s Panama-domiciled subsidiary currently provides these products to qualified international users beyond US jurisdiction. Operating with stablecoin settlement, the platform achieved $8 billion in aggregate trading volume by August 14, approximately six weeks following its market debut.
Oversight Framework Context
In March, the SEC and CFTC executed a memorandum of understanding establishing coordinated supervision for jurisdictional intersection areas. Security futures occupy this shared territory since the SEC governs securities markets while the CFTC administers US futures exchanges.
Ondo is not alone in pursuing this regulatory pathway. The Hyperliquid Policy Center submitted comparable documentation on August 24. That filing noted Hyperliquid’s equity perpetual products had facilitated over $480 billion in aggregate notional trading volume during their initial 10-month period.
In August, President Trump stated that CFTC Chair Michael Selig was developing a framework to enable Hyperliquid’s compliant operation within the United States. The HYPE token surged more than 20% following these remarks and has climbed nearly 49% over the past month, currently trading near $81.
Ashley Ebersole, former SEC legal counsel, estimated that establishing a US regulatory framework for blockchain-based perpetuals could require 10 to 12 months if agencies proceed through formal rulemaking processes, though the timeline could accelerate if regulators apply existing statutory authority.
Earlier this week, the SEC separately proposed modifications to its transfer agent regulations to accommodate blockchain-based record maintenance and tokenized securities instruments.
According to RWA.xyz data, Ondo holds the fourth position among tokenized real-world asset management platforms with approximately $2.6 billion in distributed value.
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