The owner of the New York Stock Exchange now wants to sell a product crypto invented. Intercontinental Exchange, the parent of the NYSE and one of the largest exchange groups on the planet, signaled in remarks reported on June 8, 2026 that it is interested in launching perpetual futures, with CEO Jeffrey Sprecher asking, in effect, "can we do that?" after watching Hyperliquid build a multi-billion-dollar business on them, per Yahoo Finance. ICE is not first. Kalshi has brought the first US-regulated crypto perpetual futures to market, and Coinbase and Kraken have launched pre-IPO perps for users outside the US. The loud holdout is CME Group, whose CEO Terry Duffy called perps "a disaster waiting to happen." The most crypto-native trading product on the market is going mainstream, the biggest names in finance disagree on whether that is smart, and the risk Duffy points at is real.

  • ICE, the NYSE's parent, signaled interest in launching perpetual futures in remarks reported June 8, 2026, citing Hyperliquid's success (Yahoo Finance).
  • Kalshi launched the first US-regulated crypto perpetual futures, a CFTC-approved BTCPERP contract, putting the product inside a US regulatory wrapper (Crypto Briefing).
  • Coinbase launched pre-IPO perpetual futures with SpaceX as the first asset, and Kraken listed its own SpaceX pre-IPO perp; both are open to users outside the US for now (CryptoPotato, Traders Magazine).
  • Arthur Hayes argues Wall Street is now coming for Hyperliquid's lead in perps (Decrypt).
  • CME's Terry Duffy is the holdout, calling perps "a disaster waiting to happen" and voicing "grave concerns" (Crypto Briefing, The Block, Bloomberg).

What is a perpetual future?

A perpetual future is a bet on the price of something, using borrowed money, with no expiry date. A normal futures contract settles on a set day. A perp never does. You can hold the position open for as long as you keep enough collateral behind it, which is why traders call it "perpetual."

The trick that keeps a perp tied to the real price is the funding rate. Every few hours, traders on one side of the trade pay a small fee to traders on the other side. When more people are betting the price goes up than down, the longs pay the shorts, and that cost nudges the contract back toward the spot price. When the crowd leans the other way, the shorts pay the longs. The funding rate is the rubber band that stops the perp from drifting away from the asset it tracks.

The part that makes perps powerful and dangerous is leverage. A perp lets you control a large position with a small amount of money down. Put up a few hundred dollars, control thousands. That magnifies a winning trade. It also magnifies a losing one, and if the price moves against you far enough, the exchange closes your position and you lose your collateral. This is the product crypto exchanges ran offshore for years, away from US regulators, and the one Wall Street is now circling.

Why Wall Street suddenly wants in

The short answer is that perps print volume, and Hyperliquid proved it at scale. Hyperliquid is the decentralized exchange that turned perpetual futures into a dominant business, clearing a large share of on-chain perps on a given day, a rise whale.day has covered. ICE's chief pointed straight at that success when he floated the idea, per Yahoo Finance. When a product that traditional exchanges do not offer starts doing billions in daily turnover, the incumbents notice.

The timing tracks a wider shift in where the action is. Futures trading is surging on crypto exchanges even as plain spot trading slows, according to CryptoQuant data reported by CryptoRank. Traders want leverage, and they want it on assets beyond Bitcoin, so the exchanges are racing to give it to them rather than ceding the flow offshore.

The launches are already live, and they are getting creative about what you can bet on. Coinbase rolled out pre-IPO perpetual futures, letting traders take leveraged positions on private companies before those companies go public, with SpaceX as the first asset, per CryptoPotato. That product runs through Coinbase Bermuda and is open to eligible users outside the US, not US citizens, for now. Kraken listed its own SpaceX pre-IPO perp with up to 5x leverage, and it too sits outside the US to start, per Traders Magazine. The genuinely onshore move came from Kalshi, the regulated event-contracts platform, which launched the first crypto perpetual futures available to US investors after CFTC approval of its BTCPERP contract, per Crypto Briefing; whale.day has covered Kalshi and the CFTC opening the door to Bitcoin perpetuals separately. Arthur Hayes, the BitMEX co-founder whose own positioning whale.day tracks, put the stakes bluntly: Wall Street, he argues, is coming for Hyperliquid's lead in perps, per Decrypt.

Why CME's CEO is worried

Not everyone in finance thinks this is progress. Terry Duffy, the CEO of CME Group, the world's largest derivatives exchange, called perpetual futures "a disaster waiting to happen," per Crypto Briefing and The Block, and voiced "grave concerns" about the new perps contracts coming to market, per Bloomberg. CME is the venue that already runs the regulated, dated Bitcoin and Ether futures that institutions use. Its boss is the loudest voice saying the perpetual version is a different animal.

The concern is concrete. It comes down to how perps behave under stress. A perp combines high leverage with no expiry and a funding mechanism that has to work in real time, even when prices are moving fast. When a market gaps hard, leveraged positions get force-closed in a chain, and that forced selling can push prices further than the original news warranted. Duffy's worry is that bolting a leverage product built for crypto's always-on markets onto the broader financial system imports that fragility. CME has the existing futures franchise to protect, so it has its own book to talk. The mechanical risk he is naming holds up on its own terms regardless.

The case for TradFi perps

  • Brings a popular product into the regulated system, inside formal rules and disclosure, instead of leaving traders to use offshore venues.
  • Lets traders hedge and speculate on assets, including private companies, with capital efficiency.
  • Captures fast-growing futures volume that is already migrating to crypto exchanges (CryptoRank/CryptoQuant).

The case against

  • High leverage plus no expiry can turn a sharp move into a cascade of forced liquidations.
  • The funding mechanism is untested at the scale and inside the plumbing of mainstream finance.
  • A retail trader can lose their full collateral fast; the product was built for sophisticated risk-takers.

What it means for a regular trader

For most readers the takeaway is caution, not excitement. A perpetual future is a leveraged product, and leverage is the fastest way to lose money in any market. The same mechanism that can double a gain can erase your collateral in minutes if the price moves against you. The fact that a household name like Coinbase or the NYSE's parent is offering it does not make it safer; it makes it easier to reach.

Perpetual futures use high leverage, and that cuts both ways. A move against your position can trigger a forced liquidation that wipes out your collateral, often faster than you can react. In sharp sell-offs, cascading liquidations make the move worse for everyone holding leverage. These products were built for professional risk-takers, not for parking money you cannot afford to lose. Nothing here is a recommendation to trade them.

What we're watching

Whether ICE actually launches, and how it is structured. ICE floated interest; it did not announce a product. The detail that matters is the regulatory wrapper, because the whole pitch of a US perp is that it is supervised in a way the offshore versions are not. A vague signal from the NYSE's parent is a long way from a live contract.

The other thing to watch is whether CME blinks. Right now the split is clean: Kalshi is live with a US-regulated perp, Coinbase and Kraken are running pre-IPO perps abroad, CME is out, and Duffy is on record calling the product dangerous. If the volume keeps migrating and CME's caution starts costing it market share, the question becomes whether the largest derivatives exchange holds the line or quietly builds a perp of its own. And the test underneath all of it is Hyperliquid. HYPE, its token, jumped 12% on a Coinbase-related catalyst this week, per crypto.news, a sign the market still rates the franchise Wall Street is now chasing. Whether the incumbents take real share, or just validate the product Hyperliquid already owns, is the part that is not settled.