CFTC Staff Says Some Deribit Perpetuals Can Be Treated as Foreign Futures; Coinbase Subsidiary Gets Conditional No-Action Relief

CFTC staff on Friday said certain crypto perpetual contracts can be treated as foreign futures under the agency’s cross-border customer rules and, in the same action, gave Coinbase Financial Markets conditional no-action relief to post customer-owned digital assets with an affiliated foreign broker as margin for positions traded on Deribit.

The move came in CFTC Letter No. 26-17, dated May 29 and signed by Duncan Hennes, director of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Market Participants Division. Coinbase Financial Markets, or CFM, is a registered futures commission merchant and a subsidiary of Coinbase Global. In plain terms, CFM asked to offer U.S. customers access to three Deribit products through the CFTC’s Part 30 framework for foreign derivatives markets: fixed-expiry futures, options on futures and “Deribit Perpetuals,” contracts with no expiration date that use a funding-rate mechanism to track spot prices. Under the structure described in the letter, customer positions would remain on CFM’s books in 30.7 customer accounts, while aggregate customer funds would be deposited in an omnibus account at Coinbase Bermuda Limited, or CBBM, a Coinbase affiliate that would route orders and act as the foreign broker. The trades would be executed on Deribit FZE, another Coinbase affiliate and the foreign board of trade.

The staff interpretation said the Deribit Perpetuals described by CFM “may be categorized as foreign futures” under Regulation 30.1. That matters because Part 30 governs how U.S. futures commission merchants can carry customer positions in foreign futures and foreign options markets. In the same letter, the division said it would not recommend enforcement under Regulation 30.7 if CFM posts customer-owned digital commodities and payment stablecoins with CBBM to margin customers’ Deribit positions, including where CBBM has a right of re-use over those assets. The press release said the interpretation is “consistent with the May 29, 2026, Order Approving KalshiEX LLC BTCPERP Futures Contract.”

The no-action relief is tightly conditioned. Among the main guardrails, CFM, CBBM and Deribit must remain wholly owned subsidiaries of Coinbase Global, which the letter notes is a U.S. public reporting company. The firms must execute and file an Appendix E acknowledgment letter under Part 30. Relevant customers must have access to Deribit’s audited financial statements and SOC 2 report, and customers must receive enhanced disclosures explaining how assets move through the affiliated structure, what role each affiliate plays and how Deribit’s default management process works. The letter also requires Deribit and CBBM to maintain information-security and risk-management programs integrated with the broader Coinbase group, and bars specified criminal disqualifications for Deribit, CBBM and certain affiliates.

The letter puts limits on how customer assets can be used once transferred. Any right of re-use must be authorized or required under local law or Deribit’s rules, and the customer digital assets may be used or re-used only to margin or secure 30.7 customer obligations. CFM also must comply with CFTC Letter 26-05, the division’s February staff framework that allowed futures commission merchants to accept certain digital assets, including bitcoin, ether and payment stablecoins, as margin collateral subject to valuation, haircut and reporting conditions. The letter says Deribit is regulated by Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority and that CBBM is a Class F digital assets business in Bermuda regulated by the Bermuda Monetary Authority.

The action builds on two recent staff positions. Letter 25-38, issued in November 2025, addressed when futures commission merchants may deposit customer assets with foreign brokers under right-of-use arrangements. Letter 26-05, issued in February, dealt with the use of certain digital assets as margin. Friday’s letter combines those strands into a fact-specific path for a Coinbase-led structure: classify the perpetuals as foreign futures for Part 30 purposes, then allow customer digital assets to move through a foreign affiliate and be re-used as margin, subject to detailed safeguards.

Just as important is what the action is not. It is a staff interpretation and no-action position from the Market Participants Division, not a commission vote, a new rule or a change in statute. The letter says its conclusions are specific to the facts presented, may be modified or terminated, and “do not necessarily represent the views of the Commission or those of any other division or office of the Commission.”