Robinhood Turns On 10x Crypto Perps in the US
Eight contracts, no expiry, one basis point a trade — and Coinbase gets its own clearinghouse the same day.
gm, Defiers!
These are the biggest stories in DeFi and crypto:
- Robinhood started its US crypto perps rollout with up to 10x leverage on eight assets
- Balancer set Oct. 30 and Nov. 30 shutdown dates after BAL holders approved the wind-down
- Coinbase won CFTC registration for its own derivatives clearinghouse
- House Oversight widened its prediction-market insider-trading probe to Hyperliquid, Crypto.com and PredictIt's owner
- Coinbase added HYPE and ZEC as collateral for Morpho-powered USDC loans of up to $100,000
Fifteen months ago Robinhood's crypto chief told The Defiant the company had built perpetual futures for European customers and was waiting on US regulators to allow the same product at home. On Sept. 29 the wait ended: eight contracts, up to 10x leverage on bitcoin and ether, 3x on the rest, no expiration date, and one basis point a trade through the end of 2026.
Robinhood started the US rollout through Robinhood Derivatives, a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant, with Bitstamp. The announcement leaves out the US exchange and clearing entities behind Bitstamp's role. Hours earlier, Coinbase won CFTC registration for its own clearinghouse, and the House Oversight Committee asked Hyperliquid for identity and suspicious-trading records.
Three items, one direction. US retail leverage has run on workarounds for a year. Coinbase's perpetual-style futures carry five-year expirations because a true perp had nowhere to live. Polymarket blocked US order placement when it launched 20x perps this month, and Kraken's parent proposed a permissioned Hyperliquid venue cleared by Bitnomial. Robinhood's no-expiry contract skips the workaround. Coinbase's clearinghouse removes the outside clearer. Its single-stock perpetual filing is still pending at the CFTC, and that is the next domino.
The through-line is registration. SEC staff spent last week narrowing its token-buyback FAQ to systems with no central party, and this week the CFTC handed a clearinghouse to a public company. Both agencies are drawing lines, and the lines reward entities with a registration to lose. Every venue clearing the bar has an FCM, a DCO or both.
Hyperliquid's answer to James Comer will be that a venue onboarded via wallet cannot produce identity records on demand. That is the design working as intended, and it is also what keeps the deepest perps book offshore while a retail brokerage sells 10x inside an app that made Robinhood Chain the highest-fee network in crypto for a stretch of September. Balancer set its shutdown dates the same afternoon. Leverage and volume are moving toward the entities that can answer a subpoena, and the permissionless venues that shipped these products first are shutting down, fenced off from US users, or waiting for a licensed intermediary to resell them.
Read more below!
Robinhood Begins US Crypto Perps Rollout With Up to 10x Leverage
Robinhood began rolling out crypto perpetual futures to US traders on Sept. 29, with up to 10x leverage on BTC and ETH and 3x on SOL, XRP, DOGE, ADA, LINK and HYPE. The contracts never expire and trade around the clock through Robinhood Derivatives, a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant, and Bitstamp. Fees are one basis point per trade through the end of 2026. Robinhood warns that losses can exceed the initial investment and that the accounts carry no FDIC or SIPC protection.
Balancer Sets Shutdown Dates After BAL Holders Approve Wind-Down
Balancer will move pausable pools to withdrawals-only on Oct. 30 and pause its V3 Vault on Nov. 30, the protocol said on Sept. 29. BAL holders approved BIP-928 and voted down a rival fork proposal. Pools run normally until Oct. 30, and the bug bounty ends that day. Partners have until Oct. 16 to ask that specific V3 pools stay open longer. About $52.4 million is still in the two versions, by The Defiant's sum of DefiLlama's Sept. 29 readings.
Coinbase Wins CFTC Approval for In-House Derivatives Clearing
Coinbase secured CFTC registration for Coinbase Clearing LLC on Sept. 28, letting it clear fully collateralized futures, options and swaps itself. Both sides fund their obligations up front, so there is no variation margin and no default fund. The clearinghouse takes USDC and settles around the clock. Margined products stay with partners: Nodal Clear still handles the nano bitcoin and nano ether perpetual-style futures, and Coinbase says its planned single-stock perpetuals will too. No first contracts or launch date were named.
House Oversight Expands Prediction-Market Probe to Hyperliquid
House Oversight Chairman James Comer sent document requests to Hyperliquid Labs, Crypto.com and PredictIt owner Aristotle Exchange on Sept. 29, widening a probe that opened with Kalshi and Polymarket in May. CNBC, which obtained the letters first, said each one asks how the company verifies identities and spots suspicious trading. Comer's letter to Hyperliquid CEO Jeff Yan cites a large leveraged short opened minutes after a presidential tariff announcement in October 2025, and asks whether the venue could identify the trader. The claims are unproven.
Coinbase Adds HYPE and ZEC as Collateral for Loans of Up to $100,000
Coinbase added Hyperliquid's HYPE and Zcash's ZEC as collateral for USDC loans on Sept. 29. Eligible U.S. users outside New York can borrow up to $100,000 without selling. Coinbase runs the interface; the loans sit on Morpho on Base, and Coinbase is not the lender. Fees are 2% on the first $250,000 and 1% above that, added to principal. Liquidation thresholds vary by asset, and Coinbase says it cannot stop Morpho from liquidating once one is hit.
Other Stories Worth Your Time
BlackRock Sees Stablecoins Powering AI Agent Payments — a Sept. 22 paper argues agents will settle tiny data and compute purchases in stablecoins, using rails like Coinbase's x402.
SEC Sues Cryptoaiml and TSAI Over Alleged $15 Million AI Trading Scams — two New York suits allege investors were shown fictitious profits and pressed for more money when they tried to withdraw.
Sentora Seeks Aave V4 Markets With 50% Revenue Share for DAO — the Ethereum instance would lend RLUSD, PYUSD and OUSD, with Sentora setting risk outside the mandate of Aave's existing risk service providers.
NEAR Intents Says It Froze $503,000 in Bitget Hack Funds — about $166,000 passed through the swap system, and Bitget says NEAR Intents waived its share of the recovery bounty.
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