Robinhood Markets and Coinbase shares jumped Monday after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission cleared the way for US customers to trade perpetual futures — a product that has long been the domain of offshore crypto exchanges. Robinhood closed around $94, an 11% gain and its highest since February, while Coinbase rose nearly 7% to roughly $189, still within the range it has held since late March.
What the CFTC actually did
The regulator issued a no-action letter to Coinbase, letting the exchange offer US customers access to options and perpetual futures — essentially derivatives contracts that never expire — that Coinbase already provides overseas. The move doesn't change the rules outright, but it signals the agency won't take enforcement action against Coinbase for offering those products domestically. Other firms, including Gemini and Robinhood, are now exploring similar offerings; Robinhood already runs a perpetuals business in Europe.
Mizuho analyst Dan Dolev called the CFTC's stance a 'massive market opportunity' for Coinbase and others to pull trading volume back from offshore platforms that have dominated perpetuals. Mizuho raised its price target for Robinhood from $110 to $115. Citizens reiterated its 'market outperform' rating and kept a $155 target for Robinhood. The analyst optimism reflects a bet that US exchanges can capture a chunk of the leveraged trading that has flowed to venues like Binance and Bybit.
AI agents get a trading window
Robinhood also said it plans to let users connect AI agents to their accounts for trading and credit card purchases, with limits set by the user. The company said AI agents will initially be able to trade equities in a separate account, with support for options, event contracts, futures and more expected later. It's a notable step toward automated, agent-driven investing — though Robinhood stressed that users will control how much access the bots get.
For now, the no-action letter applies only to Coinbase. Other firms will need their own letters or a formal rule change to offer perpetuals broadly. The CFTC hasn't said whether it plans to expand the relief. Robinhood's AI agent feature also lacks a launch date — the company only said it's coming.
