CFTC Greenlights 100x Bitcoin Perpetuals as SEC Crypto Fundraising Route Stalls at Proposal Stage

CoinGecko data shows Bitcoin traded at $77,227 on August 18, up 22.5% over the prior seven days, as the CFTC's May approval of a 100x leveraged perpetual contract for a regulated US exchange went live. The product allows eligible participants to take directional positions on bitcoin with up to 100 times margin, a level of leverage previously unavailable on a US-regulated venue.

The CFTC cleared the perpetual contract on May 29 under its existing swap-execution-facility rules. The exchange lists the product as a cash-settled bitcoin derivative with daily funding rates and no expiry. Market makers began quoting two-sided markets in June; open interest crossed $1.2 billion by mid-August, per exchange disclosures.

The SEC Proposal

Three months later, the SEC published a proposed rulemaking that would create a conditional exemption for token-network fundraising under Section 3(a)(11) of the Securities Act. The proposal requires networks to demonstrate functional utility, decentralized governance, and a genuine use case beyond speculation. It does not grant immediate relief; projects must wait for a final rule, which the agency has not scheduled. The contrast is procedural. The CFTC acted through an existing registration pathway, the exchange was already a designated contract market. The SEC's proposal creates a new exemption category that requires rulemaking, public comment, and Commission vote. Industry comment letters are due 60 days after Federal Register publication, placing the earliest final action in late 2025. Legal counsel for two token projects confirmed they are drafting comment letters but have not altered launch timelines. "The proposal is a signal, not a green light," said a partner at a Washington securities practice. "No one is filing a Form D under this yet. Bitcoin's 22.5% weekly gain coincided with $3.4 billion in spot ETF inflows over the same period, per Bloomberg data. The perpetual contract's funding rate has averaged 0.01% per eight-hour interval since launch, indicating balanced long-short positioning despite the spot rally. The next procedural milestone is the SEC comment deadline. Until a final rule appears, token networks raising capital from US persons must rely on Regulation D, Regulation A+, or offshore structures, the same framework that has applied since the 2017 DAO Report.