Coinbase Becomes First US Exchange Allowed to Offer Global Crypto Perps Trading
The CFTC cleared Coinbase to let U.S. customers access offshore crypto perpetual futures through Deribit, opening a risky but lucrative market.
Intelligence analysis by GPT-5.4 Mini
The CFTC issued a no-action letter that lets Coinbase connect U.S. customers to offshore crypto perpetual futures via Deribit, its $2.9 billion acquisition. The ruling may become a template for other exchanges and could speed up U.S. access to perps.
Coinbase got permission to help people in the United States trade a kind of crypto bet that never ends. It is like a game where the score can change very fast, and the prize can get bigger or disappear just as quickly.
The special part is that this game was mostly played in other countries before. Now Coinbase can connect its customers to that bigger, worldwide market through a company it already bought.
That matters because other exchanges may copy the idea. It is like one store getting the first license to sell a new kind of popular toy, and then the rest of the shops may soon try to stock the same thing.
Analysis
What happened
The CFTC gave Coinbase a green light on Friday to offer crypto perpetual futures to U.S. customers through Deribit, the offshore options exchange Coinbase bought for $2.9 billion last year. The article says this makes Coinbase the first U.S. exchange allowed to connect domestic users to the global perps market.
Perpetual futures, or “perps,” are derivatives with no expiration date. They let traders make highly leveraged bets on crypto prices, which can magnify gains and losses quickly. Decrypt notes that the product is popular but dangerous: losing positions can be liquidated fast, and leverage can amplify market stress.
Why this matters
A source familiar with the matter told Decrypt that Coinbase has not yet decided which assets it will support, but the CFTC’s letter cleared the way for all “digital commodity” perpetual futures traded on Deribit. That list includes markets tied to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Dogecoin, and TRUMP, among others, though Coinbase will choose which ones are appropriate for U.S. customers.
The story frames the move as part of a broader policy shift. The CFTC has been signaling for more than a year that it wanted to bring crypto perps into the United States. Decrypt also says the market is enormous: over the last month, crypto perps trading volume topped $588 billion, compared with $160 billion across the entire DeFi ecosystem.
Broader implications
The article suggests Coinbase will not be alone for long. It says other U.S. exchanges are likely to follow the same path, using the CFTC’s no-action letter as a guide. On the same day, the regulator also gave Kalshi permission to create Bitcoin perpetual futures in the United States, pointing to a wider acceptance of regulated crypto derivatives at the federal level.
Key points
- The CFTC allowed Coinbase to offer U.S. customers access to offshore crypto perpetual futures through Deribit.
- Perpetual futures are high-risk, highly leveraged contracts with no expiration date.
- Coinbase has not yet decided which assets it will list for U.S. customers.
- The article says the move could set a template for other U.S. exchanges.
- The CFTC also approved Kalshi to create Bitcoin perpetual futures in the United States.
