Coinbase wants stock trading to run like crypto trading: never closed. On September 1, 2026, the exchange filed two applications with US regulators, Form 1-N through Coinbase Derivatives and Form BD-N through Coinbase Financial Markets, seeking permission to offer perpetual futures contracts on individual US stocks. If it clears every hurdle, American retail traders could eventually buy and sell leveraged, expiration-free contracts tied to companies like Apple or Tesla at 3 a.m. on a Sunday, something no regulated US venue currently allows.

  • Coinbase filed Form 1-N and Form BD-N on September 1, 2026, seeking to offer 24/7 "security futures" on individual US stocks, classifying the product under existing derivatives law rather than asking for a new category.
  • A perpetual future never expires. Instead of settling on a fixed date like a normal futures contract, it stays open indefinitely and uses a periodic funding payment to keep its price anchored to the real stock price.
  • CFTC approval, not just the SEC filing, is required before anything can launch. Coinbase has not named a launch date, leverage caps, margin rules, or which stocks would be available first.
  • COIN shares closed at $192.70 on September 3, up roughly 10% from $174.96 the day before, a move that coincided with both the filing news and a broader rebound in crypto-linked stocks.

What exactly is Coinbase asking regulators for?

The two filings target different pieces of the same product. Form 1-N runs through Coinbase Derivatives, the arm that already operates a CFTC-registered futures exchange, and covers the derivatives side of the business. Form BD-N goes through Coinbase Financial Markets and addresses the broker-dealer registration needed to actually distribute the contracts to retail customers. Coinbase's Chief Policy Officer, Faryar Shirzad, confirmed the move in a post on X on September 3, describing the goal as bringing round-the-clock single-stock perpetuals onshore in the United States.

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The company is deliberately calling these contracts "security futures," a term that already exists in US law and carries an established regulatory framework. That's a strategic choice: rather than lobbying for an entirely new rulebook, Coinbase is trying to fit a crypto-native product into a box regulators already know how to evaluate.

How would a stock perpetual actually work?

Traditional futures expire. A contract on a stock might settle in March, June, or December, and traders have to roll their position forward if they want to stay exposed past that date. Perpetuals skip that step entirely. There's no settlement date, so a position can theoretically stay open forever.

The catch is that a contract with no expiration needs some other mechanism to stop it from drifting away from the actual stock price. That's what the funding rate does. Periodically, usually every few hours in most crypto-perpetual markets, one side of the trade pays the other a small amount based on the gap between the contract price and the spot price. If perpetuals trade above the real stock price, longs pay shorts, and vice versa. It's a self-correcting mechanism that crypto exchanges have run for years on Bitcoin and Ethereum, and Coinbase is now proposing to run it on shares of publicly traded companies.

Regulatory path from filing to launch A four-step flow diagram showing Coinbase's September 1 filing, the SEC review currently underway, the still-required CFTC approval, and a US launch with no set date. REGULATORY PATH From filing to launch: four steps Only step one has happened. Steps two through four are still open. SEPT 1, 2026 Coinbase files Form 1-N + BD-N IN PROGRESS SEC review Two filings pending REQUIRED NEXT CFTC approval Not yet granted PENDING US launch No date set Traditional markets: 9:30am to 4pm, weekdays only. Stock perpetuals, if approved: 24/7/365. genztech.blog
Fig 1 Coinbase's September 1 filing is only the first of at least three regulatory steps standing between the company and a live 24/7 stock perpetuals market in the US.

How the week played out

  1. Sept 1, 2026: Coinbase submits Form 1-N and Form BD-N, formally requesting approval to offer 24/7 US equity perpetual futures.
  2. Sept 2, 2026: COIN closes at $174.96, the baseline price against which the market's reaction gets measured.
  3. Sept 3, 2026: Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad announces the filing on X. COIN closes at $192.70, up about 10% on the day.
  4. Pending: CFTC review and approval, the step that determines whether the product can actually launch in the US.

Why does this matter beyond crypto traders?

US stock markets have closed on nights and weekends for as long as they've existed, a limitation that's mostly just accepted as how markets work. Crypto broke that rule from day one, and now the wall between the two worlds is getting thinner. Robinhood and Ondo Finance are already pushing into adjacent territory, offering products aimed at weekend and after-hours trading in stock-linked assets while regular exchanges sit dark. If Coinbase gets its approval, individual investors, not just institutions with access to specialized swap desks, would be able to react to a Friday night earnings leak or a Sunday geopolitical headline immediately, with leverage, instead of waiting for Monday's open.

That's a real shift in market structure, not just a new ticker to trade. It would mean stock prices react to news in real time, continuously, the same way Bitcoin already does.

What it means for the market

The most direct signal so far is Coinbase's own stock. COIN jumped from $174.96 to $192.70 between September 2 and September 3, a company-specific catalyst layered on top of a broader rebound in crypto-linked equities that same day. Investors read the filing as Coinbase staking out ground in a product category before competitors lock it down. Robinhood and Ondo Finance are both already active in adjacent 24/7 and stock-perpetual-adjacent offerings, and a Coinbase entry would turn a niche corner of the market into a genuine three-way race for exchange volume.

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The signal for investors is that the market is pricing Coinbase's regulatory ambition, not a finished product. Nothing about leverage limits, fees, or which stocks would trade has been decided, let alone approved. This is not investment advice about COIN or any other name mentioned here, just a read on why the stock moved the way it did.

What could go wrong or get delayed?

The SEC filing is the easy part. CFTC approval is the actual gate, and the agency has no obligation to move quickly, especially for a product this novel, leveraged stock exposure with no expiration date, trading continuously outside the hours regulators are used to monitoring. The CFTC could ask for changes to margin requirements, restrict which stocks qualify, or simply take months to rule. There's also the open question of whether traditional brokers and exchanges push back, since a 24/7 leveraged product competing for the same order flow as NYSE and Nasdaq listings is exactly the kind of thing incumbents lobby against.

Coinbase itself hasn't committed to specifics yet either. No leverage caps, no margin framework, no list of underlying stocks, no launch window. All of that has to get worked out, likely in negotiation with regulators, before retail traders see anything live.

What to watch

The CFTC's response timeline is the one date that actually matters here. Watch for which stocks get named as candidates for the first batch of contracts, whether Coinbase publishes leverage and margin terms before or after approval, and whether Robinhood or other brokers file competing applications in response.

Primary sources

Original analysis by GenZTech Team. Source: Investing.com / Reuters