U.S. Sustainable Equity Contracts Aren’t for Americans? Ondo Writes to the SEC and CFTC, Seeking to Open Them Up in the U.S.

Ondo submitted a comment letter urging the United States to allow U.S. sustainable equity contracts
The tokenized asset platform Ondo Finance announced yesterday (9/2) that in recent days it has submitted three comment letters to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The letters address three topics: perpetual futures (perpetual contracts), portfolio margin, and market data.
Ondo argues that U.S. sustainable equity contracts can operate under the existing securities and futures regulatory framework and do not require new rules. The platform also stated in a product category letter that the statutory definition of securities and futures products does not require the contracts to have a fixed maturity date.
Ondo also noted that for most overseas perpetual contracts that are currently linked to stocks, their primary trading venues are still U.S. exchanges. It therefore urges regulators to proactively bring the relevant trading activities back within the U.S.
Image source: Ondo article. Ondo submits a comment letter, urging the U.S. to open up U.S. stock perpetual contracts
Ondo’s U.S. stock perpetual contract trading volume hits $8 billion, but Americans can’t trade it
Traditional futures contracts expire on fixed dates and settle according to the value of the underlying asset. Perpetual contracts, on the other hand, have no fixed expiration date; instead, a periodic funding rate mechanism is used to keep market prices close to the reference price of the underlying asset.
When the price of a perpetual contract is higher than the reference price, longs typically must pay fees to shorts; when it is lower than the reference price, the payment goes the other way, thereby creating an incentive for price convergence.
Ondo told regulators that the role of the funding rate mechanism is similar to the convergence function of traditional futures contracts at expiration. The key is the product’s economic structure, not whether the contract has a fixed settlement date.
Ondo’s related company in Panama currently already provides outside the U.S. services for perpetual contract trading settled in stablecoins and linked to U.S. stocks.
Since the platform launched about six weeks ago, as of August 14 its cumulative trading volume has reached $8 billion, but U.S. users currently still cannot access the platform.
Further reading: Ondo launches its first batch of SEC-compliant tokenized U.S. stocks! Americans can trade tokenized BlackRock ETFs and Micron stocks
Regulatory coordination mechanisms have existed for a long time already; Ondo hopes to do something similar.
In its comment letter, Ondo mentioned that the (Commodity Futures Modernization Act) passed in 2000 established a joint regulatory category for security futures products, along with a notification and registration mechanism. This allows companies that have completed registration with one regulator to satisfy the requirements of another regulator via notice registration, without having to set up a separate independent regulatory entity.
This mechanism has been in operation for many years since the 2000 legislation and has been tested by the market. When the CME Group recently launched single-stock futures, it also completed registration with the SEC through this notification registration mechanism.
Hyperliquid also submitted a comment letter
The Hyperliquid Policy Center, a related organization of the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid, also submitted a comment letter to the SEC and CFTC on August 24, recommending that sustainable contracts involving stocks with futures characteristics be categorized as security futures products, and that a unified regulatory framework be adopted without distinguishing the type of underlying asset.
Hyperliquid said that in the first 10 months before its HIP-3 market, which includes stock perpetual contracts, went live, the cumulative notional trading volume had already exceeded $480 billion. If the legal status of perpetual contracts is unclear, it could trigger legal disputes between market participants registered with different regulatory agencies; a unified regulatory framework would enable exchanges to compete positively on trade quality and liquidity.
Former SEC legal counsel Ashley Ebersole added that if regulators establish a U.S. perpetual contract regulatory pathway through a formal legislative process—including steps such as issuing a public request for comments and implementing the regime—the overall timeline could take 10 to 12 months. However, if regulators rely more on existing legal authorities or exemption provisions, progress could be faster.
Further reading:
Can DeFi enter in a compliant way? Bloomberg: Hyperliquid plans to partner with Kraken’s parent company to enter the U.S.

Is the CLARITY crypto bill almost passed? SEC Chair: fastest by September 15 to push through the Senate
“Americans can’t use U.S. stock perpetual contracts! Ondo writes to the SEC and CFTC seeking to open them up in the U.S.” — this article was first published on “Crypto City”