Coinbase has officially launched perpetual contracts for U.S. stocks, marking the start of an all-out battle among exchanges in the U.S. stock perpetual market. Now, almost every exchange has added top-tier U.S. stock assets like Apple, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Tesla, as well as SPY, QQQ, and more into the crypto market’s 24/7 trading framework. The competition between exchanges has expanded beyond crypto assets to include global equity asset trading, raising the stakes and broadening the user base. Coinbase’s U.S. stock perpetual contract product is targeted at regions outside the U.S. What sets it apart from other exchanges is that it integrates U.S. stocks, ETFs, and crypto perpetuals into a single USDC trading system, operating under a U.S.-compliant framework. Additionally, it adopts a more proactive weekend pricing mechanism, ensuring more continuous price discovery during U.S. stock market closures, with shorter fee settlement cycles and more sensitive weekend price movements. Binance’s TradFi products allow trading of precious metals, stocks, ETFs, and more. It’s a natural extension of their existing USDT-margined perpetuals, maintaining the 8-hour funding fee structure and the familiar habits of crypto users. Plus, their current zero-fee maker trades continue to attract new users to the platform. It’s worth noting that nearly all exchanges have chosen the same path: offering users synthetic exposure rather than actual stock trading. This overlaps with their existing derivatives business, meaning that exchanges entering the U.S. stock perpetual market aren’t just aiming to capture the U.S. stock market. They’re also working to retain their crypto users by extending their trading needs from the crypto space to U.S. stocks.