Ondo Finance Pushes Regulators to Bring Perpetual Futures Under US Oversight

Ondo Finance is pushing US regulators to bring perpetual futures tied to individual stocks under domestic oversight. The company has submitted three comment letters to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), arguing that existing rules can accommodate these products without new legislation.

The letters address three rulemaking areas: perpetual futures product definitions, portfolio margining, and market data reporting. Ondo claims that scheduled funding payments can perform the same economic function as traditional expiration dates in keeping contract prices aligned with the underlying stock.

The company points to its Panama-based affiliate's platform offering stablecoin-settled perpetual futures on individual US-listed stocks, which has recorded $8 billion in cumulative trading volume as of August 14. Ondo notes that the equities underlying these offshore perpetuals are 'principally traded on US exchanges', making it clear why bringing this activity back to the US is a regulatory priority.

The SEC and CFTC have been reexamining how decades-old market rules apply to blockchain-native products, with both agencies signing a memorandum of understanding in March to harmonize oversight. The filings arrive as President Donald Trump said CFTC Chair Michael Selig was working to bring Hyperliquid into the US 'in a fully compliant and legal fashion', sparking a 20% jump in HYPE's price.

Ondo maintains that regulators should apply existing security futures definitions to perpetual structures, incorporating funding-based price alignment and updated margining workflows. If regulators accept Ondo's argument, it could establish a clearer path for other tokenized derivatives strategies seeking regulated access in the US market.