Pepperstone Launches Perpetual CFDs for 24/7 Equity Trading

Pepperstone launched perpetual CFDs in 2026, extending 24/7 trading access to equities and pre-IPO instruments within a regulated framework, as weekend RWA derivative volume across major crypto exchanges passed $100 billion in 2026. The product responds to growing retail demand for continuous trading outside traditional exchange hours, with extended-hours trading accounting for over 11% of all US equity trading as of January 2025. The development follows announcements by NYSE Arca and Nasdaq of extended hours trading and DTCC engagement with overnight settlement mechanics. Perpetual CFDs apply funding-rate mechanisms similar to crypto-native perpetual swaps to traditional asset classes, eliminating fixed expiry dates while maintaining regulatory oversight. The shift reflects a structural recalibration as global retail participation distributes active traders across every time zone, creating demand for instruments that function during geopolitical events and market-moving announcements that occur during overnight and weekend gaps.

Retail Demand Drives 24/7 Trading Expansion

Fixed exchange sessions create a structural mismatch with the global retail base. The NYSE opens at 9:30 a.m. Eastern and closes at 4:00 p.m., a window designed for an era when the participant base was concentrated in a single geography. That assumption has shifted as retail participation has spread across Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East. Non-professional participants with constrained trading hours are often unable to respond to volatility in real time during off-hours and weekends. Geopolitically driven dislocations, tariff shock announcements, sovereign credit events, and single-stock blow-ups often occur during overnight and weekend gaps, when traditional venues offer limited solutions. Crypto venues have started to address this shortcoming, with both centralized and decentralized exchanges offering perpetual and tokenized products that provide continuous price discovery. Weekend RWA-linked derivative volume across major crypto exchanges passed $100 billion in 2026. The historic SpaceX IPO significantly accelerated awareness of pre-IPO perpetual markets with more than $3 billion volume traded prior to IPO. Other events such as the US-Iran conflict often saw crude, gold and equity indices reprice materially at the Monday open.

Figure 1: Monthly Weekend RWA Derivatives Volume

Tokenized RWA derivative volume is up 220% year-to-date, having crossed nearly $300 billion in June alone, with weekends contributing $20 billion of that total. Legacy institutions have caught on to the trend. NYSE Arca and Nasdaq have announced extended hours trading, and the DTCC has engaged with the mechanics of overnight settlement. U.S. broker-dealers rolled out overnight equity access in 2023 and 2024, responding to growing client demand for greater flexibility and longer trading sessions. Extended-hours trading accounted for over 11% of all U.S. equity trading as of January 2025, with more than 1.7 billion shares changing hands daily outside standard session hours, a figure that has more than doubled since early 2019.

Figure 2: Daily Equities Derivative Volume

Perpetual CFD Structure Eliminates Fixed Expiry

A spot CFD mirrors the price of an underlying asset and carries an overnight swap, typically expressed as a daily percentage of the notional position. The contract has no fixed expiry, so the swap accrues for as long as the position is held. A perpetual CFD's swap is instead derived from a peer-to-peer funding rate. This is a periodic payment exchanged between long and short holders, reflecting the gap between the perpetual's traded price and the underlying's fair value. When the perpetual trades at a premium to spot, longs pay shorts, and when at a discount, shorts pay longs. Pepperstone sets the applicable funding rate in advance each week and applies it as a daily overnight swap, providing clients with greater certainty around holding costs while maintaining close alignment with the economics of the underlying perpetual market. For short-term traders, the funding rate structure yields lower carry costs than traditional swaps during periods of balanced market sentiment, when rates approach zero. A persistently positive funding rate signals net long crowding in the underlying, a data point that a static swap fee does not provide.

Figure 3: Evolving Market Structures

Pepperstone Extends Regulated Access to Continuous Markets

Pepperstone's current perpetual CFD suite spans single-stock equity, major indices, and commodities. The SpaceX pre-IPO product established the template for what comes next. Pepperstone's SPCX.US-PERP, launched ahead of SpaceX's Nasdaq debut, saw strong interest from clients. A SpaceX perpetual on Hyperliquid's Ventuals market crashed 45% in a single session on faulty oracle data handling, illustrating the risk that a regulated provider aims to eliminate. Pepperstone is offering the regulated alternative to clients who want continuous exposure without requiring crypto custody or direct exposure to offshore/on-chain venue infrastructure. Pre-IPO vehicles are the clearest near-term extension, with OpenAI and Anthropic among the most closely tracked private companies by retail investors globally and both cited as candidates for pre-IPO perpetual markets on crypto-native platforms, with active contracts already trading on venues including Hyperliquid and Polymarket.

Figure 4: SpaceX Perps Volume

Infrastructure Built on 24/7 Crypto CFD Operations

Pepperstone was founded in Melbourne in 2010 and operates under licenses from ASIC, the FCA, CySEC, DFSA, BaFin, and SCB, serving retail and professional clients across more than 160 countries. Its core business processes over $1 trillion in monthly trading volume, spanning forex, indices, commodities, and share CFDs. Pepperstone's 24/7 crypto CFD infrastructure provided a precedent for the always-on trading model now used in perpetual CFDs. Running crypto CFDs through weekends and overnight required building execution, risk management, and client margining systems capable of handling 24/7 price formation without session resets. The launch of 24-hour US share CFDs was the first step for Pepperstone to offer that capability for traditional equity names, allowing clients to trade major US stocks outside NYSE and Nasdaq hours. The 2026 perpetual CFD launch extended the model further, replacing the expiry-and-roll mechanics of conventional CFDs with continuous, no-expiry instruments priced on a funding rate mechanism similar to that of crypto-native perpetual swaps.

FAQ

What is a perpetual CFD and how does it differ from traditional CFDs?

A perpetual CFD is a contract for difference with no fixed expiry date that uses a peer-to-peer funding rate mechanism instead of a traditional overnight swap. Pepperstone sets the applicable funding rate in advance each week and applies it as a daily overnight swap, while traditional CFDs carry a daily percentage swap for as long as the position is held.

Why did extended-hours trading grow to over 11% of US equity trading by January 2025?

Extended-hours trading accounted for over 11% of all U.S. equity trading as of January 2025, with more than 1.7 billion shares changing hands daily outside standard session hours, a figure that has more than doubled since early 2019. The growth reflects retail demand for continuous trading access as geopolitical events and market-moving announcements often occur during overnight and weekend gaps when traditional venues offer limited solutions.

What regulatory licenses does Pepperstone operate under for perpetual CFD offerings?

Pepperstone operates under licenses from ASIC, the FCA, CySEC, DFSA, BaFin, and SCB, serving retail and professional clients across more than 160 countries. The firm was founded in Melbourne in 2010 and processes over $1 trillion in monthly trading volume across forex, indices, commodities, and share CFDs.