Australia'scorporate regulator is signaling that one of crypto's fastest-growingderivatives is outrunning the country's rulebook. Perpetualfutures, leveraged contracts with no expiry date, now offer exposure that looksmuch like a contracts for difference (CFDs), yet are typically sold toAustralians through offshore platforms that sit outside the regulator's reach.Thatwarning sits inside a report the Australian Securities and InvestmentsCommission (ASIC) releasedtoday (Tuesday), alongside a Sydneyroundtable of market and financial-services leaders. Perps and CFDs Start toLook Like the Same TradeThe reportdraws a direct line between perpetual futures and CFDs. Both give tradersleveraged synthetic exposure to an asset without owning it, and both run onmargin. The structural split is who sets the terms. A CFD is abilateral over-the-counter contract where the provider fixes financing chargesand margin, while perps rely on a funding rate exchanged between long and shortpositions.Regulatorshave already started closing that gap. Earlier this year ESMA told firms that perpetualfutures meeting the CFD definition already fall under the bloc's intervention measures, regardless of howa product is branded.Spain wentfurther, instructing Cyprus-licensed brokers totreat both perps and spot-quoted futures as CFDs under its retail rules.ForEuropean retail clients, that reading carries a hard cost. Leverage on cryptoperps would be capped at 2x rather than the 10x some venues advertise, a shiftthat could strip much of the product'sappeal before it scales.The UnitedStates is moving the other way. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission saidin early 2026 it would build a framework to bring perps onshore and recaptureliquidity that has drifted to offshore venues.[#highlighted-links#] Accordingto the report, the global perpetual futures market remains heavily concentratedon a handful of centralized exchanges, mainly Binance, OKX and Bybit, while onthe decentralized side Hyperliquid averaged 72% of the perp-DEX segment through2025.The Offshore Gap AustraliaHas Not ClosedFor ASIC,the problem is jurisdictional. The report notes that novel crypto-nativeproducts such as perpetuals and event contracts are typically offered toAustralian investors through offshore venues, and may sit outside existingregulatory perimeters. ASIC mayneed to decide whether such products fall within its remit or another agency's,the report said.Perps arealso creeping into regulated territory, which complicates the picture further.The Singapore Exchange launched Bitcoin and Ether perpetual futures forinstitutional and accredited investors in November 2025. In March2026, Hyperliquidlisted the first licensed S&P 500 perpetual contract throughTrade[XYZ], pushing the format from crypto into a mainstream equity benchmark.ASIC ChairwomanSarah Court framed the broader stakes carefully at the roundtable, cautioningagainst change for its own sake. "Innovation is not an end in and ofitself," she said, adding that it needs a clear purpose and publicbenefit.Gamified Apps and CopyTrading Draw Regulatory FireThe reportdevotes heavy attention to how retail investors are being nudged into tradingmore, and into riskier products. Gamification features such as notifications,points and rewards are now a routine part of mobile brokerage and crypto appsrather than an outlier.Theevidence cited is pointed. AUK randomized experiment involving more than 9,000 people found thatdigital engagement practices lifted trading frequency by 11% to 12% andrisk-taking by 6% to 8%, with stronger effects on younger and less financiallyliterate users. An Ontarioregulator study found points and badges drove nearly 40% more trades despitecarrying negligible economic value.Copytrading sits alongside it as a supervisory headache. The report cites eToro,the largest dedicated player, which reported 40 million registered users and3.9 million funded accounts for 2025, with more than 5,000 investors in itscopy program. Theconcern, the report said, is that copy trading blurs the line betweenexecution-only brokerage, investment advice and portfolio management. The risk issharpest where copied trades flow into leveraged products like CFDs, a patternthat FinanceMagnates.com has reported smarter copy-trading tools arealready pushing against prop-firm controls.The Clock Extends Toward24-Hour MarketsA thirdstrand runs through extended trading hours, where the report tracks a shiftfrom broker overlays to exchange-level operation. US venues have moved fastest.Nasdaq filed to run 23 hours a day,five days a week,targeting the second half of 2026, while NYSE Arca won approval forsubstantially longer weekday hours and 24X National Exchange launched itsSEC-approved 23/5 platform.Brokers gotthere first. Robinhood already offers 24/5 trading on alternative venues, andthe report notes that the real constraint is post-trade plumbing rather thanmatching engines. The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation's NSCC hasmoved to extend clearing hours to keep pace.Outside theUS, the shift has been more measured. SIX Swiss Exchange stretched its dayto nearly 14 hours for structured products, and Deutsche Börse added early and lateretail windows on Xetra, while the European Union and UK have held back frommarket-wide overnight trading.A Push to Keep AustralianMarkets CompetitiveASICCommissioner Simone Constant tied the threads together around competitiveness,arguing that technology has eroded the barriers that once kept capital at home."Geographic moats look like a thing of the past," she said.The reportestimates that digital-finance efficiency gains could reach around US$2.7trillion a year globally and roughly AU$24 billion annually in Australia, drawnfrom cutting manual processing, settlement failures and trapped collateral. It alsoflags the other side of the ledger, warning that reliance on a small set of AImodels, data vendors and cloud platforms could turn business-level risk into asystemic concern, and that gamified and social trading could amplify retailharm.ASIC saidthe roundtable was the first in a series, and that it would publish a summaryof the themes and practical actions that emerge. Whether that produces aconcrete pathway, rather than another warning, is the question the agency hasleft open.The agencycommissioned the study from the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre andis using it to argue that Australia must move faster or watch capital andinnovation migrate elsewhere.This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.