Catenaa, September 14, 2026- Singapore Exchange has received US regulatory authorization to give eligible American institutional investors direct access to its Bitcoin and Ether perpetual futures, expanding the race to move one of crypto’s largest derivatives markets into regulated financial venues.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission granted the authorization under Regulation 48.10, which allows recognized foreign boards of trade to offer qualifying US participants direct access to their electronic markets.
The approval means US institutions can trade SGX’s existing Bitcoin and Ether perpetual contracts through the Singapore venue rather than requiring separate US-listed versions.
American clients will access the products through clearing members, which stand between traders and the exchange as part of the traditional futures-market risk structure.
SGX expects institutional onboarding to take about two to four weeks.
Its Bitcoin and Ether perpetual futures have already generated about $5.8 billion in cumulative trading volume since launching in November 2025.
Bitcoin has accounted for about 83% of average daily volume and roughly two-thirds of open interest, according to figures released by the exchange.
Perpetual futures differ from conventional futures because they do not expire.
Instead, periodic funding payments between traders help keep contract prices close to the underlying spot market.
The contracts became enormously popular on offshore crypto exchanges because traders can maintain leveraged exposure without repeatedly rolling positions into new expiry dates.
For years, most perpetual-futures activity remained outside regulated US markets.
That began to change under President Donald Trump’s second administration as the CFTC adopted a more supportive approach toward bringing crypto derivatives into regulated trading structures.
The commission approved the first US-regulated Bitcoin perpetual futures contract in May, opening the door for domestic and foreign exchanges to compete for institutional trading activity.
Coinbase, Kraken-linked Bitnomial and other regulated venues have since expanded their perpetual-futures offerings.
SGX adds a different dimension because it connects US institutions directly with an established Asian derivatives market and its existing liquidity.
The exchange also uses a more traditional risk-management model than many crypto-native venues.
Instead of automatically liquidating positions immediately when collateral falls below required levels, SGX uses margin calls that allow participants to provide additional collateral.
Clearing members also act as an additional layer of protection between clients and the exchange.
SGX does not accept stablecoins as collateral for the contracts, reflecting concerns that dollar-pegged tokens could lose their peg during periods of extreme volatility.
The exchange plans to expand beyond perpetuals with dated Bitcoin and Ether futures and options.
That would place SGX more directly against global derivatives exchanges competing to capture institutional crypto trading as regulatory barriers fall.
The development also reflects a wider change in the crypto derivatives market.
Perpetual futures were once identified largely with offshore exchanges offering high leverage and automatic liquidation systems. Regulated exchanges are now attempting to bring the same basic product into market structures familiar to banks, hedge funds and asset managers.
SGX’s challenge will be liquidity.
US institutions may prefer regulated access and conventional clearing, but crypto-native exchanges still dominate perpetual-futures trading and generally offer deeper markets.
The CFTC authorization removes one major obstacle.
Whether institutional traders shift meaningful volume to Singapore will determine how important SGX becomes in the growing global competition for regulated crypto perpetuals.
