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(Bloomberg) — Singapore Exchange Ltd is preparing to offer its cryptocurrency perpetual futures to US institutions, making it the first major traditional exchange to bring one of crypto’s favorite trades into the mainstream.
The exchange filed with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission last month to offer the contracts to US investors. As a registered overseas exchange, it can offer the products to US institutions if it receives no objection within 10 days. The move gives SGX access to a deeper pool of hedge funds, asset managers and proprietary trading firms after the exchange launched Bitcoin and Ether perpetual futures last November.
Perpetual futures, known as perps, have become a fixture of crypto markets, letting traders make leveraged bets without the expiry dates attached to conventional futures. Traditional exchanges are now pursuing their own versions as regulators become more receptive, opening a new front in the competition for a derivatives market that generates hundreds of billions of dollars in trading each month.
However, there’s a catch: bringing perps into traditional finance means changing some of what made them distinctly crypto products. SGX’s contracts trade 22.5 hours a day, five days a week, with members required to post 35 per cent margin and use fiat collateral. The exchange also does not use the automatic deleveraging mechanisms found on some crypto platforms.
While the underlying crypto tokens trade 24/7, SGX does not see this as a problem, pointing to the types of clients it’s chasing.
“We are going after institutions, accredited investors, expert investors – those types of profile of customers who are not trading on the weekend,” KC Lam, SGX’s head of crypto derivatives, said in an interview with Bloomberg. He added that the exchange could support 24/7 trading in the future if needed, depending on “where the rest of the world is moving.”
So far, liquidity has stayed overwhelmingly with crypto-native venues. The decentralised Hyperliquid platform handles roughly US$80 billion to US$100 billion a month in Bitcoin and Ether perps, while SGX has recorded about US$6 billion across its perpetual futures since launch. Opening the contracts to US institutions will test whether a larger institutional customer base can begin to close that gap.
“The US has one of the biggest institutional participation in the crypto space – be it in futures, ETFs,” Lam said. “I think it’s a natural thing for us to pivot to.”
Timing Matters
US investors have historically accessed crypto perps largely through offshore venues. But in May, the CFTC cracked open the door to offering those products domestically when it approved the first true Bitcoin perpetual contract on Kalshi, a CFTC-registered exchange and prediction market operator.
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig described the move as a step toward bringing one of crypto’s most liquid market segments into the US regulatory framework.
The appeal of perps has been reinforced by the rapid growth of venues such as Hyperliquid, where users trade contracts tied to a range of assets, from stocks like SpaceX to commodities such as oil and gold.
That growth has caught the attention of President Donald Trump, who in August said Selig was working to bring Hyperliquid into the US “in a fully compliant and legal fashion.” Trump stopped short of offering any commitment or timeline.
Against this backdrop, SGX decided the time was ripe to bring its crypto perps to the US. Lam said he expects the move to help grow volumes. “Liquidity begets liquidity,” he said. “So more people will come and trade.”
In August, 29,655 Bitcoin perps and 6,758 Ether perps were traded on SGX, taking the combined number for the first eight months of the year to 353,825, according to exchange data.
The Competition
Beyond Kalshi, crypto-native rivals are eager to capitalize on the friendlier regulatory environment.
Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the US, has moved aggressively into the market. In May, it said its US-regulated futures commission merchant could give institutional clients access to global crypto perpetuals and options. Earlier this month, the company said it had filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer equity-based perps.
The exchange has said 80 per cent of global crypto trading volume comes from derivatives.
SGX is betting it can carve out a niche in this market as a multi-asset exchange catering to professional investors. Through SGX, an institution can trade crypto alongside other derivatives for equities, interest rates, currencies and commodities.
Lam also suggested that accessing these products through an Asian exchange would be an advantage to US investors who are currently limited to local liquidity pools and trading hours.
“Now after US hours, we could actually be a good complement to what they have,” he said.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
Source: sg.news.yahoo.com