Ondo Finance urges SEC and CFTC to bring US stock perpetual futures onshore

Ondo's Proposal for US Stock Perpetual Futures

On August 24, Ondo Finance submitted three comment letters to the SEC and CFTC arguing that perpetual futures contracts on individual stocks can already be regulated within the existing US security futures framework. The company emphasized that the current rules can accommodate modern margining practices and leverage onchain market data effectively.

Ondo highlighted that its Panama-based affiliate offers stablecoin-settled perpetual futures on US-listed individual stocks outside the United States. As of August 14, approximately six weeks after the platform’s launch, it recorded a cumulative trading volume of $8 billion.

The firm argued that scheduled funding payments in perpetual contracts function similarly to expiration dates in traditional futures by maintaining alignment with the price of the underlying stock.

In its product-classification letter, Ondo noted that the statutory definition of a security futures product does not require a fixed expiration date.

Underlying Stocks and Bringing Trading Onshore

Ondo pointed out that many of the stocks underlying these offshore perpetual futures are primarily traded on US exchanges. It believes repatriating this trading activity back to US jurisdictions is not up for debate but should be actively pursued by both the SEC and the CFTC.

Additionally, Ondo ranks fourth among the largest managers of tokenized real-world assets, with around $2.6 billion in distributed value according to RWA.xyz data as of Wednesday.

US Regulators’ Growing Focus on Onchain Products

Ondo’s initiative comes amid US regulators reevaluating how existing market rules apply to onchain financial products, including perpetual futures and tokenized securities.

In August, former President Donald Trump stated that CFTC Chair Michael Selig was working towards bringing Hyperliquid—known for its onchain perpetual futures market—into the US in a “fully compliant and legal fashion.” Neither the CFTC nor Hyperliquid have publicly clarified how this would be operationalized.

Following Trump’s comments, Hyperliquid’s native token HYPE surged over 20%, gaining nearly 49% in the past month to trade around $81 as of Wednesday, according to CoinGecko.

This year, the SEC and CFTC have increased coordination, signing a memorandum of understanding in March to harmonize oversight where their jurisdictions overlap, particularly relevant for emerging fintech products.

SEC Proposals to Modernize Market Infrastructure

On Tuesday, the SEC proposed overhauling its decades-old transfer agent regulatory framework. The move targets growing demand for blockchain-native recordkeeping and tokenized securities in US capital markets, reflecting the agency’s efforts to update rules designed for traditional market infrastructures.