Coinbase Secures CFTC Clearance to Bring Global Crypto Perpetuals and Options to US Clients

Coinbase said on May 29 that Coinbase Financial Markets has become the first US-regulated futures commission merchant (FCM) cleared to connect domestic clients to global crypto perpetuals and options markets, opening access to a multitrillion-dollar segment that has largely been off-limits to US traders. The move follows new guidance from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Coinbase said institutional customers will be able to access, through a regulated channel, instruments that make up roughly 80% of global crypto trading volume. Onboarding for Prime clients began immediately. For years, US customers lacked a compliant route to trade perpetual swaps and crypto options, the two largest categories in digital-asset markets. Many institutions relied on offshore entities to participate, increasing counterparty risk and duplicating infrastructure costs. Coinbase said the new structure reduces the need for offshore workarounds and allows liquidity to be accessed through a single regulated broker. The guidance also builds on earlier CFTC actions, including the leveraged spot trading framework cleared in late 2024. The rollout is anchored by options on Deribit, which Coinbase acquired last year. Those products are now available via Coinbase Financial Markets, with perpetual futures contracts expected to follow. Deribit has more than $31 billion in bitcoin (BTC) options open interest. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said US users had been excluded from about 80% of global crypto markets and described the CFTC clearance as closing that gap. "Big day for our USbased traders, and for Coinbase. Until now, US users have been locked out of ~80% of global crypto markets (perpetual futures and options). But not anymore!" he wrote in a May 29, 2026 post. US-regulated perpetual-style products have also emerged this year through Cboe's continuous futures, but those contracts are limited to domestic venues and do not route to global liquidity. CFTC chair Mike Selig said the agency took "historic action" to enable the listing of a "true bitcoin perpetual contract" by a CFTC-registered exchange, creating a path for one of the market's most liquid segments to operate within the US regulatory framework. Coinbase expects retail access to come later, but has not provided a timeline.