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The Daily Ledger: 28 October 2026

Crypto Perpetual Futures in the US: Who Holds Your Margin

Crypto.com opens 5x perpetual futures to eligible US traders: how crypto perpetual futures in the US are structured and who holds your margin. Plus the CFTC sues Utah, Robinhood's crypto slump and a Coinbase vendor leak.

By Adam, founder and chief editor · Educational analysis, independently sourced

THE DAILY LEDGER

28 October 2026
Crypto.com opens regulated perpetual futures to eligible US traders, the CFTC sues a tenth state over prediction markets, and a vendor incident exposes some Coinbase customer contact data.

Reporting window: 27 October 2026, 06:00 UTC to 28 October, 06:00 UTC (07:00 Europe/Stockholm). Data cutoff: 28 October, 06:00 UTC. Prices are CoinGecko 00:00 UTC daily snapshots compared with the previous day's 00:00 UTC snapshot. This issue was added to the archive on 30 October 2026 and uses only information available at the cutoff.

Crypto perpetual futures in the US are no longer an offshore-only product. On 27 October, Crypto.com and OG.com began rolling out perpetuals to eligible American customers at up to 5x leverage, through a chain of CFTC-registered firms. That chain decides who holds your money, which matters more than the headline.

1. The Day in Numbers

  • Bitcoin: $80,801 at 00:00 UTC, up 1.0 percent against the previous day's 00:00 UTC snapshot of $80,029. CoinGecko daily data.
  • Ether: $2,347.32 at 00:00 UTC, up 1.1 percent on the same basis. CoinGecko.
  • Fear and Greed: 51, Neutral, up 3 points from 48. Alternative.me daily reading, 28 October, 00:00 UTC.
  • Federal Reserve: the 27 to 28 October meeting announces at 18:00 UTC, after our cutoff. On 27 October, CME FedWatch pricing implied a 90.6 percent chance of holding at 3.75 to 4 percent, Bloomingbit reported, after a quarter-point rise in September. Market pricing, not a forecast.
  • Spot bitcoin ETFs, Tuesday 27 October: no completed total had appeared in a source we could verify before the cutoff, so we leave it out.

2. How crypto perpetual futures in the US work

A perpetual future is a contract with no expiry date that tracks a coin's price, kept close to the spot market by regular funding payments between buyers and sellers. The CFTC opened the door on 29 May, when it approved Kalshi's bitcoin perpetual as a futures contract.

Crypto.com's version splits the job up. Crypto.com takes orders as an introducing broker, a firm that under NFA definitions does not accept customer money. OG.com Broker, a futures commission merchant, holds the margin and must keep customer funds segregated and separately accounted for. A CFTC-registered OG.com exchange and clearinghouse list the contracts and clear every trade.

Diagram of how crypto perpetual futures reach US traders through Crypto.com and OG.com, launched 27 October 2026. Five stacked layers: one, Crypto.com's app and exchange take the order as an introducing broker, which may not accept customer money; two, OG.com Broker, a futures commission merchant, holds the margin and must keep customer funds segregated under CFTC Rule 1.20; three, an OG.com exchange, a designated contract market, lists the perpetual as a futures contract, open 24/7 with no expiry; four, an OG.com clearinghouse, a registered derivatives clearing organization, clears each trade; five, the CFTC supervises the venues and the NFA registers the broker and the FCM. A side panel shows that at 5x leverage 1,000 dollars of margin controls 5,000 dollars of bitcoin, so a 20 percent move against the position erases the margin and liquidation comes sooner; at 20x the threshold is a 5 percent move and at 100x a 1 percent move. It notes funding terms were not in the launch release. A footer lists the CFTC's approval of Kalshi's BTCPERP on 29 May 2026, conversion relief on 12 June and the Crypto.com launch on 27 October.
Our diagram, based on the Crypto.com and OG.com launch release, NFA registration definitions, CFTC Regulation 1.20 and CFTC releases 9240-26 and 9252-26. Simplified leverage arithmetic that ignores fees and funding.

The cap is 5x. With $1,000 of margin you control $5,000 of exposure, so a 20 percent move against you erases the margin, and liquidation arrives before that. Many international venues offer 20x to 100x, Bitcoin.com News notes. Still unknown: who counts as eligible, which coins are listed and how funding is set; the release refers traders to Crypto.com's US site. Robinhood has also announced perpetuals for eligible US customers.

3. Today's Headlines

The CFTC sues a tenth state over prediction markets

The CFTC sued Utah on 27 October after the state brought civil actions in state court against CFTC-registered markets. It argues federal law gives it sole authority over these markets and has started proceedings against nine other states.

Robinhood's prediction markets now out-earn crypto

Robinhood's third quarter results showed cryptocurrency revenue of $120 million, down 55 percent from a year earlier, while event contracts brought in $173 million, more than six times the year before. Total net revenue rose 12 percent to $1.42 billion.

South Korea calls an emergency meeting after a Bithumb breach

Bithumb said an outsider broke into its internal mobile groupware and leaked personal data, mostly about employees so far, though it has not ruled out customer data, DigitalToday reported. The presidential office convened an emergency meeting with financial regulators on 28 October to review it and a separate intrusion at Mirae Asset Global Investments.

4. Security Note

At 02:49 UTC on 28 October, Coinbase Support said that Amplitude, an analytics vendor, had a security incident affecting contact data for "a small subset" of Coinbase customers, among other Amplitude clients. Coinbase found no evidence of access to its own systems and said no customer assets were harmed, but did not say how many people are affected, Bloomingbit reported. Leaked contact details feed impersonation scams. The rule: treat any call, text or email about your account that you did not start as hostile, and never move funds to a "safe" wallet or read out a code because someone asks.

5. From the Academy Library

Our 23 September issue covers the closure of BitMEX, the exchange that introduced the perpetual swap. New readers can start at Academy School.

Bringing perpetuals onshore changes who holds the margin. It does not change what leverage does to it.

Disclaimer: This publication is for education and information only. It is not financial, investment, legal, tax, or security advice.

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