Why is everyone talking about Perpetual futures?

Perpetual futures are migrating from offshore crypto venues into regulated capital markets. 

In the first five months of 2026, cash-settled perpetual futures referencing real-world commodities, equities, and indices generated USD 822 billion in cumulative volume, reaching an annualised run-rate of USD 2.5 trillion (CoinMarketCap Research, May 2026). This is up to five times the size of the world’s tokenised securities markets. 

Now, following a series of Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approvals between May and October 2026, US exchanges can list true no-expiry perpetuals on broad-based equity indices and have filed to list single-stock perpetual contracts. This paves the way for further exponential growth.

Snapshot of this brief

• What perpetual futures are
• Current trading volumes
• Why firms are using them 
• Why they are in the news headlines