Ondo Perps CEO sees US opportunity for perpetual futures, but with a different model

Ondo Perps CEO sees US opening for perpetual futures

Ondo Perps CEO David Wells says offering perpetual futures in the United States is a 'huge opportunity' for the company, but any US version would not look like the platform it runs for non-US users. Perpetual futures, also called perps, are contracts that let traders bet on an asset's price without owning it, and they have no expiry date.

Wells spoke to The Block at Ondo's event in Seoul, South Korea. He did not confirm plans to bring the offshore venue to the US, saying the team has not explored the idea in depth.

Key points

• Wells says a US product would likely need a different settlement and clearing structure.
• He did not confirm any plan to expand Ondo Perps to the US.
• US regulators and companies are testing how perps could enter domestic markets.
• Ondo Perps has recorded about $14 billion in trading volume and over $100 million in open interest since its private beta, according to Wells.

Regulators and firms are testing US perps

Wells's comments come at a time when US regulators and several firms are testing how perpetual futures could enter domestic markets. In August, President Donald Trump said the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was working to bring Hyperliquid into the United States in a fully compliant and legal fashion.

Payward, the parent company of Kraken, has announced plans to list Hyperliquid's HIP-3 perpetual markets for eligible US clients through CFTC-regulated Bitnomial Exchange and NinjaTrader Clearing, subject to approval. Coinbase has also filed to launch single-stock perps, or perpetual futures tied to individual stocks, in the US.

Ondo Finance filed letters with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the CFTC earlier this month arguing that US equity perpetual contracts fit the existing category of security futures under the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000.

How Ondo Perps works now

Ondo Perps launched in July this year. It is a Panama-based offshore perps venue for tokenized US stocks, equity ETFs, and commodities. Tokenized stocks are traditional shares represented as digital tokens on a blockchain. ETFs are exchange-traded funds.

Traders can use USDC, a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, or eligible Ondo Stocks tokens as margin, with up to 20x leverage on certain contracts. Leverage lets traders control a larger position with less money, but also increases risk.

Wells says the platform's key feature is letting traders use tokenized stocks as collateral. That allows users to stay invested in the underlying asset while supporting their positions, instead of locking up stablecoins.

On Monday, Ondo Perps said users can now buy and sell 12 Ondo Stocks directly on the platform. Traders who post those tokens as collateral no longer have to manage positions on two separate venues. The company says it will eventually add all Ondo Stocks.

Since its private beta, Ondo Perps has accumulated around $14 billion in trading volume and recently recorded open interest of over $100 million, according to Wells. Open interest is the total value of open derivative contracts. He said the volume includes retail traders, institutional market-makers and hedgers, B2B2C channels, and aggregators.

What is still unclear

Wells did not confirm any plan to expand Ondo Perps to the US or give a timeline. He said the team has not gone too far in exploring the US market. The exact shape of any US-regulated perps product is still being tested.

The Hyperliquid listing through Payward is subject to approval, so it is not confirmed to launch.

Why it matters

Wells's comments add to a series of recent moves showing that companies and regulators are exploring how perps could be offered in the US. The recent activity suggests that more opportunities are opening up in the US market, as Wells said.

What happens next

Ondo Perps says it plans to expand the availability of Ondo Stocks on its platform to all of its tokenized stocks. No timeline was given for a possible US entry.

Sources

• The Block