Mentioned in This Article
1. Equity perpetual futures: what Coinbase and Deribit opened
Coinbase and Deribit opened six new equity perpetual futures markets on October 14, 2026, at 10:00 AM UTC. The contracts track CoreWeave, Oracle, Dell and Palantir Technologies, plus two exchange-traded-fund products, and are settled in the USDC stablecoin. They are offered to traders outside the United States and trade around the clock.
The tickers are CRWV for CoreWeave, ORCL for Oracle, DELL for Dell, PLTR for Palantir, SOXS and SNXX. Deribit's contract specifications classify the first four as equity contracts and the last two as equity ETF contracts. The listings appear on both Coinbase and Deribit, with the underlying prices drawn from Coinbase indexes.
The launch extends a product line that Coinbase has been building through 2026. Taken alone, six new tickers are a modest addition to a list of tradable names. What gives the rollout weight is the infrastructure behind it: two exchanges, now operating as an integrated business, are listing stock-linked derivatives that settle in a digital dollar.
2. What are the six contracts?
Four of the markets follow single companies. CoreWeave, Oracle, Dell and Palantir are all technology names tied to computing infrastructure or data software, which makes the group a cluster of stocks that investors often watch together when sentiment about artificial intelligence spending shifts.
SOXS is different. It is linked to the Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bear 3X Shares ETF, a fund built to move in the opposite direction from semiconductor stocks, at three times the intensity on a daily basis. A trader holding a long position in a contract of this type is effectively betting against the chip sector, which turns the product into a hedging or bearish tool.
The remaining contract, SNXX, is also classified as an ETF product in Deribit's specifications. The announcement did not describe what it tracks, so this article does not either.
All six are cash-settled in USDC. Traders never receive shares of the underlying companies. Profits and losses are credited or debited in the stablecoin, and USDC is also used for quoting prices and posting margin.
Grouping single stocks with an inverse leveraged fund in one launch gives traders both directions of the same theme: they can take a long view on individual companies or use the fund-linked contract to position for a decline in chip stocks, without moving between different venues.
3. How do perpetual futures on stocks work?
A perpetual future is a derivative contract with no expiry date. Unlike a traditional futures contract, which settles on a set day, a perpetual can be held indefinitely, and a periodic payment between traders keeps its price close to the price of the underlying asset.
That payment is known as the funding rate. When the perpetual trades above the price of the underlying, traders holding long positions pay those holding short positions. When it trades below, shorts pay longs. The transfer discourages the contract from drifting far from the asset it follows, because holding the crowded side becomes progressively more expensive.
Perpetuals became a staple of crypto trading, where markets never close and leverage is widely available. Applying the same design to equities allows exposure to a stock without owning it, and without waiting for an exchange to open.
Leverage cuts both ways. Because positions are margined with a fraction of their notional value, a modest adverse price move can erase the posted collateral and trigger liquidation. Traders using these contracts need to account for that risk, and for the funding payments that accrue as long as a position stays open.
4. Why round-the-clock trading matters
Stock exchanges in the United States operate for set hours on weekdays, and news does not follow that schedule. Earnings surprises, regulatory announcements and macroeconomic data can arrive overnight or on a weekend, leaving traditional investors unable to respond until trading resumes.
The new markets run twenty-four hours a day, every day. That lets a trader react to a development when it happens, instead of waiting for the next session, and it creates a continuous price signal for the underlying names while conventional markets are closed.
Continuous trading also has drawbacks. Liquidity can be thinner outside normal market hours, and prices can move sharply on limited volume. Participants who take positions during those periods accept that the market may be less deep than it is during regular sessions.
For the six names in this launch, the feature is especially relevant. CoreWeave, Oracle, Dell and Palantir sit in a part of the market where sentiment can swing quickly, and a venue that stays open through the weekend gives traders a way to express views as sentiment changes.
Market makers play a central role in that environment. They post buy and sell quotes continuously, and the quality of those quotes determines how tightly the perpetual follows the underlying stock when the conventional market is closed and no reference trades are taking place.
5. Who can trade the new markets?
The contracts are available to traders outside the United States. People in the US are excluded because of regulatory restrictions on offering these kinds of products to US persons, so the line is drawn by jurisdiction rather than by the type of customer.
That limit shapes how the product should be read. Coinbase is building this offering for international users, and any change in US rules could alter who gets access and how quickly. The company has taken a separate route for the US market, where the sector is regulated more tightly.
Earlier in 2026, Coinbase introduced perpetual futures on the Magnificent 7 group of large technology stocks for eligible non-US users, along with contracts on the SPY and QQQ exchange-traded funds. Those products were cash-settled in USDC and offered to eligible retail users through Coinbase Advanced and to institutions on Coinbase International Exchange. In June, the company's US derivatives unit began listing perpetual-style equity index futures on a US-regulated exchange, starting on June 8.
The October listings therefore continue a pattern rather than start one: a gradual widening of the menu of stock-linked contracts, with separate arrangements for US and non-US customers.
6. The Deribit integration behind the launch
Coinbase agreed to acquire Deribit in August 2025 in a deal valued at about $2.9 billion. Deribit built its reputation in crypto options and futures, and the purchase gave Coinbase a large derivatives venue to complement its spot trading business.
The integration of the two platforms was completed in early October 2026, just ahead of this rollout. Listing the same six contracts on both venues is designed to pool activity and widen access, so that international traders can reach the products through either the Coinbase or the Deribit interface.
For Deribit, equity perpetuals broaden a product range that has been centered on digital assets. For Coinbase, the arrangement shows the value of combining its customer base and brand with an established derivatives engine, instead of building each product line from scratch.
The pairing also helps explain why the new markets use Coinbase indexes as their reference prices while trading on both platforms. A shared price source is a practical requirement when one contract is listed in two places and must stay consistent across both.
7. Why USDC sits at the center of the product
Every contract in this launch is quoted, margined and settled in USDC, a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. That choice allows stock-linked trades to run on the same collateral that crypto traders already hold, without moving money through the banking system each time a position is opened or closed.
Settling in a stablecoin is also what makes continuous operation possible. Traditional bank transfers and securities settlement systems operate on business-day schedules, whereas a token can move at any hour. The weekend market in an equity derivative depends on collateral that can move at the same hours.
For USDC itself, the launch adds another use. The more derivatives are margined and settled in the token, the more its demand is linked to trading activity, in addition to payments and savings. Stablecoin issuers and exchanges alike have been looking for such use cases as the sector matures.
The reliance on one stablecoin also concentrates risk. Traders posting USDC as margin are exposed to the health of the token and the platforms that handle it, and that exposure sits alongside the market risk of the positions themselves.
8. What to watch next
Coinbase describes its broader goal as the Everything Exchange, a single venue where users can trade many kinds of assets. Equity perpetuals sit at the center of that idea: traditional stocks provide the underlying exposure, a stablecoin supplies the collateral and settlement, and the trading schedule follows the crypto market.
The pattern of launches suggests more names could follow. Equity perpetuals were introduced for non-US users earlier this year, a US-regulated index product arrived in June, and the October rollout added six more contracts. Whether the next additions are more single stocks, more ETFs or new categories has not been announced.
Traders and observers will likely watch trading volumes and open interest in the new markets, as well as how closely the perpetual prices track the underlying stocks when conventional exchanges are closed. Those figures will show whether demand for round-the-clock stock exposure is large enough to support a growing list of contracts.
Regulation is the other variable. Because the products exclude US persons, changes in US policy on tokenized or derivative exposure to equities could reshape the opportunity. For the moment, the facts are straightforward: six new markets, two venues, a stablecoin for settlement, and an audience outside the United States.