• 40% of institutional market participants see the long-term impact of perpetual futures as positive for futures markets, versus 21% who expect a negative impact
• Greater regulatory certainty ranks first among the market structure changes that would increase willingness to trade perpetual future
• 51% expect equity indices to rank among the most perpetual futures trading over the next two to three years, while 40% cite compute

October 27, 2026 — Perpetual futures, or “perps,” still trade primarily on offshore venues. In 2026, however, they have captured the attention of U.S. derivatives traders and market structure experts. New research from Crisil Coalition Greenwich, Perpetual futures: The next wave, finds broad expectations that the product will expand beyond its roots in crypto. Respondents also expect the trend to have a net positive effect on U.S. futures markets, provided regulators settle the question of how perps should be classified.

“We believe the perps wave crashing on U.S. shores is a major event,” said David Easthope, Head of Fintech in Market Structure & Technology at Crisil Coalition Greenwich. “While we’re still in the early stages where debates are actively focused on how to categorize these products, interest is growing quickly and institutions currently see the growth of perps as a net positive for futures markets.”

Equities and Compute Next in Line

To understand institutional sentiment toward perps, Crisil Coalition Greenwich interviewed 63 professionals in North America and the U.K./Europe in September 2026. Respondents came from investment and trading firms, banks and brokers, exchanges and trading platforms, and technology and data providers. About 30% currently trade or have traded perps. Following are some of the key findings from the research:

• Expansion beyond crypto: Most perps volume worldwide today is in crypto assets, and crypto remains the asset class respondents most often expect to see the most perps trading (65%). Expectations are also strong for equity indices (51%), single stocks (46%), compute (40%) and energy (37%). Compute is an emerging part of the AI economy and is attracting fresh interest as a commercial hedging product.
• Regulatory certainty is the greatest roadblock: Market participants identified regulatory certainty as the biggest obstacle to the growth of perps trading in the U.S. Central to that uncertainty is whether perps should be classified as futures or as swaps, which would subject them to a different regulatory regime. When respondents ranked the market structure changes that would most increase their willingness to trade perps, greater regulatory certainty came first. Greater liquidity and execution on traditional futures exchanges followed.
• Mostly positive long-term outlook: Overall, 40% of respondents expect perps to have a positive long-term impact on futures markets, 21% expect a negative impact, and 16% expect limited impact. Positive effects cited include increased overall market participation, improved access to emerging asset classes such as crypto and compute, new trading and investing strategies, and a more efficient way to gain exposure. Concerns center on liquidity fragmentation and the risk of misuse by retail traders.
• Institutional adoption requires new workflows: Under current perps workflows, positions are automatically liquidated when a holder cannot post the required margin. That approach may work for retail traders, but not for institutions or commercial hedgers.

“Broader institutional demand depends on whether these products, so far successful offshore in crypto, can be tailored to institutional preferences and U.S. regulatory oversight,” said Kevin McPartland, Head of Research in Market Structure & Technology at Crisil Coalition Greenwich.