Cboe Weighs Turning Bitcoin And Ether Continuous Futures Into True Perps

Cboe is considering converting its Bitcoin and Ether continuous futures into true perpetual futures, a move that would bring one of Wall Street’s major derivatives operators closer to a crypto-native product structure that grew first on offshore exchanges and onchain platforms.

The potential shift follows new CFTC no-action relief allowing designated contract markets to convert existing perpetual-style digital commodity futures into true digital commodity perpetual futures if they meet customer-protection and procedural conditions. The relief lets exchanges remove expiration dates from existing perpetual-style contracts, give affected market participants notice, provide exit opportunities and keep other material contract terms unchanged.

Cboe already lists Bitcoin and Ether Continuous Futures, known by the symbols PBT and PET. The products are cash-settled, centrally cleared, and designed to provide long-term crypto exposure through 10-year expirations and daily cash adjustments that help keep the futures price aligned with Bitcoin and Ether reference rates.

A conversion would remove the main structural gap between Cboe’s current product and crypto-native perpetuals. Cboe’s continuous futures already mimic part of the perp experience by reducing the need to roll positions, but a true perpetual would have no expiration date at all.

Crypto-Native Design Pressures TradFi

Perpetual futures became crypto’s dominant derivatives format because they fit a 24/7 market. Traders can hold long or short exposure without managing quarterly expiries, while funding payments help anchor contract prices to spot markets.

That structure started outside traditional U.S. exchange rails. Offshore exchanges made perps the default product for leveraged crypto trading, and onchain platforms such as Hyperliquid later turned them into a core DeFi market. Hyperliquid’s recent fee performance, including 30-day fees above Ethereum, Solana and BNB Chain combined, shows why regulated exchanges are under pressure to answer the product rather than dismiss it.

The CFTC’s recent policy turn has accelerated that pressure. The agency cleared Kalshi’s Bitcoin perpetual future and gave Coinbase a route for U.S. customers to access offshore perpetuals through its Deribit-linked structure. That opened a regulated path for perps at the same time traditional exchange stocks faced investor concern over competition from crypto-native trading formats.

Cboe’s possible conversion would be a direct incumbent response. Instead of building a brand-new perpetual product from zero, Cboe can start from its existing BTC and ETH continuous futures, keep central clearing and regulated market access, and move closer to the structure traders already use across global crypto markets.

CME Lawsuit Shows Incumbent Split

The shift is also dividing traditional derivatives operators. CME has taken the opposite route by suing the CFTC over the approval path for Kalshi and Coinbase-linked perpetuals, arguing that the products should be treated as swaps rather than futures. That lawsuit has turned perps into both a product fight and a market-structure fight.

Cboe’s position is different because it already built a perpetual-style product inside regulated futures infrastructure. Its continuous futures were designed for long-term Bitcoin and Ether exposure, daily funding-style adjustments and reduced roll friction. The new CFTC relief now gives that structure a potential bridge into a true no-expiry contract.

That difference matters for market competition. CME is defending the standard futures framework, while Cboe appears better positioned to adapt its existing crypto derivatives suite. ICE is moving through a separate path after forming OKXICE with OKX for tokenized securities and regulated digital-asset products.

Regulated Perps Move From Offshore Product To U.S. Infrastructure

The bigger market signal is that TradFi exchanges are no longer setting the pace alone. Perpetual futures, tokenized assets, prediction markets and onchain order books have forced regulated platforms to react to product formats that crypto users adopted first.

Cboe still has to decide whether to move forward, and any conversion would need to satisfy the CFTC’s conditions around notice, risk disclosures, participant feedback and filings. The current no-action relief also sits on a defined timeline, giving exchanges a narrow regulatory window to act.

A Cboe conversion would not make regulated perps identical to offshore or onchain markets. Leverage, margin rules, clearing, customer eligibility, surveillance and KYC would still separate Cboe from Hyperliquid, Binance or other crypto-native platforms. The product direction is clear enough: Bitcoin and Ether perps are moving into U.S. market infrastructure, and Cboe’s continuous futures give the exchange a ready base if it chooses to make the jump.

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