RenzoFinance · 2026-11-04 17:00 UTC

Equity Basis Goes Mainstream On Tuesday the CFTC cleared single-stock perpetual futures for trading on CFTC-registered exchanges, with the SEC sharing oversight. In Chairman Mike Selig's words, "Today, equity perps can begin trading for the first time on CFTC registered exchanges." Back in May, the CFTC approved its first true perpetual, on bitcoin. Stock perps followed about five months later, which is faster than almost anyone in this market expected. We've been running the basis trade on Stock Tokens onchain for a while now, and this week made us think the market for it will get a lot bigger than anyone thought. How we got here On May 29 the CFTC approved a bitcoin perpetual listed by Kalshi, the first in the US. The same day it put out a policy statement inviting exchanges to submit perps on equities and other non-crypto assets for review, and its staff issued an advisory saying crypto-linked derivatives "may be well-suited for 24/7 trading." Selig wrote at the time that "the question was never whether crypto asset perpetual contracts would exist." On Sept 18 Coinbase filed with the CFTC for its first set of US single-stock perps, starting with Apple, Microsoft, Tesla and Nvidia. According to the Wall Street Journal, the plan covers 50 to 60 contracts. On Oct 29 ICE, which owns the NYSE, made a strategic investment in TradeXYZ and announced plans to bring Hyperliquid-based perps to US traders under a regulated framework, pending approval. ICE would run the exchange and the clearing. Its CEO, Jeffrey Sprecher, called the markets "additive to our futures markets, not a replacement for them." Tuesday's decision covered single stocks. For most of their history perps have traded offshore. In the space of a few months US regulators have written rules to bring them onshore, and the biggest exchange operator in the country has decided to build on technology that came out of an onchain venue. Where the demand is coming from TradeXYZ already runs the largest onchain markets for perps on Apple, Nvidia and Tesla, with daily turnover in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Hyperliquid, which those markets run on, made roughly $713M in revenue over the past year. Most of that volume comes from traders who want leveraged exposure to stocks at any hour without going through a broker. US venues will reach far more of those traders than onchain venues can today, and as open interest in stock perps grows, so does the funding paid on them every hour. Funding on stocks gets taken seriously Right now stock perp funding is mostly something crypto traders keep an eye on. When these contracts are listed on US exchanges, trading desks, funds and treasury teams will start modeling it and comparing it with T-bill yields or the futures basis on the S&P. The basis trade on stocks earns that funding while staying hedged on price. When we say equity basis is going mainstream, we mean that the funding it draws on is about to become a much larger and better-understood market. Running it onchain today Onshore, the trade will go through brokers and clearing members, and an intermediary will hold your position. Onchain, you can run it now in an account you control. Renzo Basis runs it on @Lighter_xyz on Robinhood Chain. It holds the Stock Token and shorts an equal-sized perp in your own account, earning funding in USDG, Robinhood Chain's stablecoin issued by Paxos. A trade-only agent key opens, adjusts and closes positions. Renzo doesn't hold your funds or make decisions for you, there's no receipt token, and it's not a pool. You can close whenever you want, and you can see every fill and hourly payment on the venue. On the GOOGL Stock Token, shorts were paid in 165 of the 169 hours between Oct 28 and Nov 4. The SPY, NVDA, GOOGL, SNDK and QQQ Stock Tokens are live now, alongside BTC, ETH, SOL, HYPE and more on Hyperliquid. We don't charge a performance or management fee, only a small fee on each fill, on top of the venue's own trading fees. What's next The CFTC has now cleared perps on bitcoin and on single stocks, and its May invitation also covers commodities such as agricultural products. Any of those markets that gets a perp will have a funding rate, and the basis trade can run on it. We'll keep adding assets and venues to Renzo Basis as they open up. If you'd rather not wait for the onshore version, the trade is already running onchain. Start at app.renzofinance.com.

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