Crypto.com launches US crypto perpetuals as offshore venues dominate trading

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On October 27, 2026, Crypto.com and OG.com launched regulated crypto perpetual futures with leverage of up to 5x for eligible U.S. traders. Contracts can be accessed by retail customers via the Crypto.com App, while advanced and institutional traders can access them on the Crypto.com Exchange platform. However, successfully launching the products in the US is just the start. The next challenge is persuading traders to transfer their activities away from offshore exchanges that still handle most of the perpetual futures trading.How the 5x leverage math worksPerpetual futures have no expiry date. Instead, payments between long and short traders help keep prices close to the spot market. Crypto.com settles them three times a day.The concept of 5 times leverage means that when you have $200 in margin, you control a position of $1,000. With a 10% rise in price, you will have a gain of $100 before costs. Conversely, a decrease of 10% will cost you half of your initial margin. However, the position can also close much earlier. According to the maintenance-margin rules of Crypto.com, liquidation occurs as soon as your margin hits the necessary minimum.Isolated margin keeps losses from affecting other positions. Stop-loss and take-profit orders also help traders manage their risks. Trading and liquidation fees are waived at launch, although funding payments still apply.The regulatory plumbing behind the launchNorth American Derivatives Exchange, a Crypto.com affiliate, is registered with the CFTC as an exchange and clearing organization. It operates under the OG.com and Crypto.com Derivatives North America brands. Foris DAX Inc. is the NFA-registered introducing broker; affiliated OG.com Broker provides futures commission merchant services. Regulation, however, cannot guarantee liquidity.“The expansion of our trading suite to include regulated crypto perpetuals gives our users the ultimate toolkit for market flexibility,” said CEO Kris Marszalek.Not the first onshore perpThe CFTC approved KalshiEX’s Bitcoin perpetual on May 29. Webull plans to offer selected contracts through KalshiEX and Kalshi Klear in November, as Cryptopolitan reported.However, there is still uncertainty regarding the legal status of perpetual futures. In June, CME filed a lawsuit against the CFTC, arguing that these contracts should be classified as swaps rather than futures. CFTC has asked the court to throw out the lawsuit. How this debate turns out is important since the two classifications relate to different margin, registration, and taxation rules.Why liquidity, not licensing, decides the winnerThe global perpetual futures market is enormous. CryptoQuant estimates that Binance handled about $25 trillion in perpetual trading volume in 2025. Stanford–Columbia researchers put worldwide reported notional volume at $61.7 trillion that year. However, the figures use different measures and should not be added together.Demand for leveraged trading remains strong. According to CoinGecko, perpetual open interest jumped 40.6% to more than $100 billion in Q3 2026. Meanwhile, centralized spot trading volume fell 14.2%.Crypto.com already has a presence in this market. Bitcoin made up 59% of its 2025 perpetual volume, according to CryptoQuant. Its top-eight altcoin perpetual volume also grew 341%. But these figures do not tell us whether US traders will embrace the new offering.Regulation brings another challenge. A BIS study warns that financial safeguards and disclosures remain uneven across crypto intermediaries.Crypto.com and OG.com Launch US Crypto Perps: 5x Leverage and Global Market DataWhat the loss research showsAFT researchers examined 729,540 Hyperliquid wallets from March 2025 to June 2026. Using a two-hour, fee-adjusted measure, they found that front-end traders, mostly considered retail, lost $1.11 billion. Market makers gained $208 million; fees made up $725 million of front-end losses.Hyperliquid is a separate decentralized exchange, not Crypto.com. Still, the findings show how trading costs and forced liquidations can overwhelm leveraged positions. Regulation may improve oversight, but traders still face the market itself.Don’t just read crypto news. Understand it. Subscribe to our newsletter. It's free.