American Perpetuals Exchange raises $30 million as it pursues dual CFTC, SEC oversight

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American Perpetuals $30M raise

Highlights

American Perpetuals Exchange Corporation raised $30 million at a $300 million valuation led by Lux Capital, aiming for dual CFTC-SEC oversight.
APEC will seek both Designated Contract Market and Derivatives Clearing Organization licenses, requiring substantial capital for compliance and in-house clearing capability.
The CFTC and SEC are expanding regulated perpetual futures, with CME Group suing the CFTC over Kalshi and Coinbase approvals, citing legal classification concerns under Dodd-Frank.

Funding plan and licensing strategy

As first reported by Fortune, American Perpetuals Exchange Corporation has raised $30 million at an estimated $300 million valuation, with the round led by New York-based venture firm Lux Capital. The company plans to file for a Designated Contract Market license with a special exemption to list perpetuals on single-name equities under joint oversight from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities Exchange Commission, according to a June 4 memo.

The memo says APEC also intends to apply for a Derivatives Clearing Organization license, which would allow it to clear transactions in-house. It adds that the company is seeking significant capital as part of the licensing process because DCM and DCO registration requires financial resources, legal spending, regulatory capital and compliance infrastructure.

Theodore Gillibrand is a recent Stanford University graduate and previously worked at venture firm Paradigm and as an intern at Andreessen Horowitz, according to his LinkedIn page. Meeting notes cited in the memo also list representatives from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, BGR Group and Arktouros PLLC among attendees alongside SEC and CFTC officials.

Regulatory race intensifies in U.S. perps market

The push comes as the CFTC and SEC are collaborating on a harmonization strategy for newer markets and asset classes including crypto and perpetual products. APEC argues in the memo that the lack of a regulated U.S. venue for equity perpetual futures is pushing demand to offshore platforms beyond the reach of domestic oversight.

Regulators are already opening the market to similar products. In May, the CFTC approved Kalshi's request to list what the article describes as the first official bitcoin perpetual in the U.S., and also permitted Coinbase to list long-dated perp-style futures, while Kraken has since announced plans to launch crypto perpetuals on Kraken Pro.

That expansion is also facing legal resistance. CME Group is suing the CFTC over those approvals, arguing that perpetuals are legally swaps under the Dodd-Frank Act rather than futures, and that Kalshi and Coinbase were effectively allowed to avoid stricter swap rules designed to limit systemic risk.

Sen. Kirstin Gillibrand, Theodore Gillibrand's mother, remains a prominent supporter of the crypto industry in Washington. She has worked frequently with Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis on digital asset legislation, including the Responsible Financial Innovation Act in 2022 and 2023 and, more recently, the GENIUS Act on stablecoins, which became law last summer.

Nasdaq’s proposed increase to its Options Regulatory Fee (ORF) is a regulatory filing with the SEC that could raise costs and add uncertainty for member trading firms. In our earlier coverage, we noted the stock remained under selling pressure as traders weighed the potential impact of fee changes alongside bearish technical signals and a heightened focus on key resistance levels.

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