Equity Perps Get CFTC Approval: 6.7x Caps, Weekday Hours, and What Stays on Hyperliquid

The CFTC said on November 3 that perpetual futures on individual US stocks, branded Equity Perps, can trade on CFTC-registered exchanges for the first time. Chairman Michael Selig said the contracts were deemed approved under existing security futures rules, CoinDesk reported. HYPE reacted within minutes: the release went out at 14:02 UTC, and HYPE broke out of an $84.90 to $85.30 range, tested above $87.40 and settled near $86.83, per U.Today.

For traders already on Hyperliquid stock perps, the approval matters less for what it permits than for how the US version is built. The contract terms filed by the first two applicants differ from HIP-3 markets on margin, funding and trading hours, and those three details decide where price discovery happens when the cash market is shut.

What the CFTC Approved With Equity Perps, and What It Left Open

Equity perps are classified as security futures, which puts them under joint CFTC and SEC oversight through the framework of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. They can only list on exchanges that are CFTC-registered and also notice-registered with the SEC as national securities exchanges for security futures products, according to Disruption Banking. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins had described the prior status of these products as a regulatory "no man's land", and the two agencies signed a memorandum of understanding on coordination earlier in 2026, per Finance Magnates.

Selig's statement named no exchange and no stock, CoinDesk noted. The concrete filings come from two venues. Coinbase Derivatives and Kalshi both submitted proposals on September 18, according to Coindoo. Kalshi's contracts were deemed approved after a 45-day review under Regulation 40.3, and its September filing covers 58 contracts tied to major US stocks and ETFs, per TokenPost.

Trading has not started. A venue listing notice naming the stocks, a launch date and final funding terms are still needed, and SIFMA asked regulators for further review on November 2, the day before the announcement, Coindoo reported. Selig framed the decision as a way to keep US traders from being "forced to turn to offshore, and often unregulated, venues."

Equity Perps Margin: Why US Stock Perps Stop Near 6.7x

The general margin requirement for security futures is 15% of the position's current market value, which caps exposure at roughly 6.7x, according to Coindoo. Kalshi proposed a 15.5% minimum, about 6.5x, and exchanges or brokers can demand more. Coindoo's worked example: a $10,000 contract on $1,500 of margin loses $500 on a 5% adverse move, about a third of the collateral, before funding and fees.

The consumer advocacy group Better Markets used a 5x example in its own warning: a 20% decline in the stock would erase the position, per TokenPost. Coindoo described US limits as "far below" the multiples available on offshore crypto perp venues.

For orderflow, that gap changes the shape of liquidation risk. A book where most accounts run near 6x has liquidation levels spread far from price, so a 3% gap on earnings mostly produces margin calls rather than forced market orders. Thin, concentrated liquidation clusters close to price remain a feature of the offshore and onchain books, which is where cascades will keep starting.

Funding Mechanics: Hourly on Coinbase, Daily on Kalshi

The two filings take different approaches to the funding payment that keeps a perp anchored to spot. Coinbase Derivatives calculates funding hourly and settles it in cash through margin runs, with no rate published while the contract market is closed, paused or halted, per Coindoo. Kalshi computes funding daily from observations taken during the regular equity session, and takes no premium observations while the US cash market is closed.

That design choice matters more than it looks. If funding is only measured during cash hours, a perp premium that builds overnight or on a holiday does not feed into what longs pay shorts until the stock market reopens. The basis can drift without the usual funding pressure pulling it back, which turns the cash open into the moment where the spread is forced shut.

For a trader comparing venues, the practical read is simple: on Kalshi's design, an overnight premium is a positioning signal, not a cost. Watch whether it closes at the cash open through the perp moving or through the stock gapping.

Trading Hours: The Weekend Still Belongs to HIP-3

The proposed sessions leave a clear gap. Coinbase Derivatives would run from Sunday 8 p.m. to Friday 5 p.m. ET, and Kalshi from Sunday 6 p.m. to Friday 5 p.m. with a daily 5 to 6 p.m. break and holiday exceptions, per Coindoo. From Friday evening to Sunday evening, there is no US-regulated equity perp market open.

Hyperliquid keeps trading through that window. trade[XYZ], built on HIP-3, runs the largest onchain perps markets for Apple, Nvidia and Tesla with daily turnover in the hundreds of millions of dollars, according to U.Today, which also noted that Hyperliquid still geoblocks US residents. On the same day as the CFTC statement, 26 Hyperliquid accounts added about $43.8 million of net long exposure across 18 stock-linked contracts, out of 145 monitored contracts on 10 HIP-3 deployers, while SOXL fell nearly 15% in 24 hours, per TokenPost.

The weekend role of these markets has already shown up in past moves covered on this blog, from the EWZ perp pricing Brazil's election on a Sunday night to Chainlink using perp quotes for weekend prices. Nothing in the US filings changes that. A Sunday 6 p.m. open on Kalshi will inherit a price that HIP-3 books spent two days discovering.

What Changes for Hyperliquid Orderflow From Here

The bigger shift is the regulated pipeline forming around Hyperliquid itself. ICE, the owner of the NYSE, invested in trade[XYZ], and its planned US market built on Hyperliquid technology is still pending approval, per CoinDesk and Coindoo. Payward, Kraken's parent, is reportedly pushing a similar product through the regulated exchange Bitnomial, according to U.Today. CoinDesk also recalled that President Trump said in August that the CFTC was working to bring Hyperliquid into the US under federal rules, and that perps traded more than $630 billion over the past month according to DefiLlama.

Three things are worth tracking as listings arrive. First, which tickers appear in the Kalshi and Coinbase listing notices, since overlap with the most active HIP-3 names decides whether volume splits or stays put. Second, the spread between the US contract and the HIP-3 contract on the same stock at the Sunday evening open. Third, funding divergence during the week, when the US venue's cash-session funding and Hyperliquid's own rate can point in different directions on the same name.

Buildix covers HIP-3 markets next to crypto perps, so the screener shows funding, open interest and CVD on stock perps in one table, and the whale tracker follows the accounts building size into moves like Tuesday's chip selloff.

The CFTC opened the door with a capped, weekday product. The hours it left uncovered are the hours where stock perps have done their most interesting price discovery so far, and those hours are still onchain.