DRW CEO says regulators are getting crypto’s biggest trading innovation all wrong
Perpetual futures are just futures contracts with no expiration date, and the common crypto features tied to them—high leverage, ADL, nonstop trading—come from exchange design choices, not the contract itself. The key innovation is eliminating contract rollovers, which cuts transaction costs, market impact, and roll slippage while keeping exposure close to the front of the curve. Wilson argued that real-time payment rails can improve margin management by allowing continuous recalculation and immediate collateral calls, reducing the need for large upfront margin buffers. He said higher leverage is optional, not inherent, and criticized ADL as unnecessary. As interest grows in regulated U.S. markets, he urged regulators to judge perpetuals by economic substance, not legal labels, and to treat them as futures rather than swaps. He also called for perpetuals to be offered across commodities, securities, and crypto.
