SGX Wins CFTC Approval to Open Bitcoin, Ether Perps to US Institutions

Singapore Exchange (SGX) has received authorization from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission to offer its Bitcoin and Ether perpetual futures directly to American institutional investors, according to an announcment on its website.

The approval comes under CFTC Regulation 48.10, which allows registered Foreign Boards of Trade to grant US participants direct access to their products without requiring those participants to register domestically.

"Under the Regulation 48.10 ruling, we have obtained CFTC authorization to open our crypto products to U.S. institutional access," KC Lam, SGX Group's head of crypto derivatives, told Coindesk, calling the approval "an important milestone" for connecting American finance participants with Asian liquidity pools.

SGX launched its Bitcoin perpetual (BTP) and Ether perpetual (ETP) contracts in November 2025. Since then the products have traded a cumulative $5.8 billion in volume, roughly 400,000 lots, with average daily volume of about 1,300 lots, or $19 million, as of August. Bitcoin accounts for 83% of that average daily volume.

The structural difference between SGX's perpetuals and those offered on crypto-native exchanges is the risk framework. "Unlike crypto-native venues where sudden volatility can trigger auto-liquidations, our traditional risk framework uses margin calls," Lam said. SGX also excludes stablecoins as acceptable collateral, citing depegging risk, a restriction most offshore crypto derivatives venues do not impose. The exchange's benchmarks are developed jointly with CoinDesk Indices and managed under EU Benchmark Regulation, according to Mohit Baheti, SGX Group's head of iEdge Indices.

US clients will not have immediate access. Clearing members are expected to begin onboarding institutional clients within one to two months, and individual account setup is expected to take two to four weeks on top of that. Lam indicated SGX's next products in the pipeline are dated futures and options on Bitcoin and Ether, extending the exchange's crypto derivatives suite beyond perpetuals.

The approval places SGX among a small group of non-US exchanges cleared to sell crypto perpetuals into the American institutional market under the CFTC's foreign board of trade framework, a route that has drawn increasing interest as regulated crypto derivatives volumes grow globally. Whether SGX's margin-call model and Asian liquidity pools prove attractive to US institutions accustomed to CME or offshore crypto-native venues will depend largely on pricing and execution once onboarding begins in earnest.