Wall Street veteran Don Wilson says regulators are getting perps all wrong
Wall Street veteran Don Wilson argues that perpetual futures contracts are being misunderstood by regulators who conflate the contract structure with specific exchange-based features like high leverage and auto-deleveraging. He suggests that digital payment rails offer opportunities to improve risk management compared to traditional clearinghouse models.
Why it matters
As regulators consider integrating crypto-native financial products into traditional markets, clarifying the distinction between contract design and exchange implementation is critical for future financial policy.
Perpetual futures have become one of crypto's defining financial products, but DRW CEO Don Wilson says much of what people think they know about them is wrong.
In a series of posts on X, Wilson argued that perpetual futures — or "perps" — are simply futures contracts without an expiration date. The features often associated with crypto perpetuals, such as high leverage, auto-deleveraging (ADL) and around-the-clock trading, are characteristics of how some crypto exchanges chose to implement the products, not the contracts themselves.
"Most of what people think they know about 'perps' ... has nothing to do with the contract itself," Wilson wrote.
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