Perps target US stocks as CME launches 50 single-stock futures

Perpetual futures, the crypto derivatives that offer up to 100 times leverage, are pushing into US stock and commodity markets after the CFTC approved Kalshi's Bitcoin contract on May 29, 2026.

CFTC Chair Selig has signaled that approvals for other asset classes are likely to follow, comparing perpetual futures to "zero-day options" in a recent interview. Cboe's latest Volatility Insights report argues the comparison breaks down once you look past leverage into payoff structure, risk, and investor behavior.

CME Group, which has been vocally opposed to perps on investor-safety grounds, launched single-stock futures on 50 of the biggest US companies on July 27. The suite includes 55 standard contracts representing 100 shares each and 22 micro contracts pegged to 10 shares, all cash-settled and trading nearly 23 hours a day. More than 50,000 contracts changed hands in a single session, with activity concentrated in Nvidia, Intel, and Amazon. CME's equity futures average daily volume for 2026 has hit 7.2 million contracts, up 12 percent year over year.

The stakes extend beyond CME's quasi-monopoly on derivatives. Leverage played a large role in a cascading crypto crash last October, wiping out traders and saddling exchanges' insurance funds when customers couldn't pay. US margin borrowing recently hit a record, though it remains far from the levels that bankrupted many in the 1929 crash. The Trump administration appears favorably inclined toward perp expansion, setting up a regulatory clash over how much leverage retail investors should be allowed to take on.

Why the comparison to 0DTE options doesn't hold

Perpetuals are linear instruments that mirror the underlying move with real leverage and liquidation risk, while zero-day-to-expiration options are convex, offering asymmetric payoff profiles and defined risk, according to Cboe's report. A 1 percent move in the underlying can liquidate a perp position held at maximum leverage, since the counterparty is another trader rather than a mutualized exchange. Perps also never expire, meaning they technically aren't "futures" at all.

Trading volumes tell a different story. Perpetuals see volume spikes in bull markets and declines in bear markets, while 0DTE options trading has steadily increased regardless of market turbulence, Cboe found. SPX 0DTE options are used for hedging, income generation, and tactical trading with defined risk, whereas perpetuals are primarily speculative instruments with embedded leverage.

CME's second attempt at single-stock futures

CME's stock-futures listings have been planned for years, according to Tim McCourt, its global head of financial and over-the-counter products. The US tried single-stock futures before — OneChicago, the previous venue, shut down in 2020 because nobody showed up. CME is betting this time is different by limiting the product to highly liquid large-cap stocks and adding a micro tier that targets retail traders priced out of full-size contracts.

Product improvements should help them do well this time, said Tim Quast, chief executive of market-structure analysis firm ModernIR. Initial volumes are still modest in the grand scheme of CME's equity derivatives complex, but growth in technology names is outpacing everything else.

If perpetual futures become available for US stocks and commodities, they could significantly increase retail leverage in traditional markets, potentially increasing volatility and crash risks similar to the October crypto crash. CME's quasi-monopoly on derivatives could be threatened, and the firms offering perps are betting that individual speculators migrating to ever-riskier products will find the most leverage most enticing.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.