Ondo Seeks Onshore Perpetual Futures as US Regulators Reexamine Frameworks

Ondo Finance has submitted letters to both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), urging them to bring perpetual futures tied to individual stocks onshore. The company argues that these products can already fit within the existing 'security futures' framework, rather than requiring new rulemaking.

Ondo's proposal targets a persistent question for tokenized markets: whether crypto-linked perpetual instruments, without a traditional fixed expiration date, can still be treated as security futures products under current US definitions. The company says its stablecoin-settled perpetuals for individual US-listed stocks have already logged $8 billion in cumulative trading volume as of August 14.

Ondo also points out that existing security futures rules do not inherently require a fixed maturity, and that margining and settlement mechanics can be adapted to modern trading environments. The company suggests that scheduled funding payments can keep perpetual contract pricing aligned with the underlying stock, serving a role comparable to expiration in traditional futures.