The Blockchain Association is urging the SEC and CFTC to stop treating equity perpetuals as two separate products. The trade group says a coordinated rulebook would keep the trading onshore and give investors stronger protections. Without that coordination, it argues, volume will keep drifting to offshore venues.
Why the gap exists
Equity perpetuals sit in a gray zone between securities and derivatives. The SEC sees some of them as securities. The CFTC sees others as futures or swaps. For a firm that wants to offer the product, that means two sets of rules that don't line up. The group says that ambiguity pushes work offshore, where the rules are simpler and the enforcement is weaker.
The competitiveness case
The group also makes a competitiveness argument. A shared framework would give firms a clearer path to offer equity perpetuals in the US. That would let US venues compete with offshore markets that have already simplified their approach. The group's position is that the current split is a business incentive to leave.
What protection looks like
On investor protection, the group says offshore trading is the riskiest option. When a platform sits outside US jurisdiction, an investor has fewer tools when something goes wrong. A coordinated framework brings that activity back under the SEC's and the CFTC's view. Both agencies would be able to set rules, watch the market, and step in when a platform fails.
The request doesn't carry a deadline. It's a recommendation, not a rule. But it puts a question to the two agencies: whether they can share oversight of a product that doesn't fit neatly in either of their boxes. That's a test of coordination that has been slow to happen elsewhere.
