CFTC confirms categorization of certain crypto asset perpetuals as foreign futures
The Market Participants Division of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced it has issued an interpretation and a no-action position in response to a request from Coinbase Financial Markets, Inc., a registered futures commission merchant.
The positions relate to Coinbase’s plan to offer certain digital commodity derivatives products listed on Coinbase Financial Markets’s affiliated foreign board of trade, Deribit FZE.
The staff letter confirms that, consistent with the May 29, 2026, Order Approving KalshiEX LLC BTCPERP Futures Contract, the perpetual contracts described in the letter may be categorized as foreign futures as defined in Commission Regulation 30.1.
Additionally, the letter states that, subject to certain specified conditions, the Market Participants Division will not recommend the Commission take an enforcement action against Coinbase Financial Markets for posting customer-owned digital commodities and payment stablecoins with Coinbase Financial Markets’s foreign broker affiliate to margin its foreign futures and foreign options positions on Coinbase Financial Markets’s affiliate foreign board of trade under circumstances where the foreign broker has obtained a right of re-use over the customer-owned assets.
