The Daily: Robinhood goes for perps and 24/7 stock trading, and more

The following article is adapted from The Block's newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.

Happy Wednesday! Bitcoin is steady around $84,000 after softer PCE inflation data cooled expectations of an October Fed rate hike.

In today's newsletter, Robinhood plans to launch perpetual futures and weekend stock trading for U.S. users, Kalshi is ending a liquidity incentive program amid wash trading allegations, Standard Chartered sees more than 600% upside for ENA, and more.

Meanwhile, the White House weighs new CFTC event contract rules as the prediction market power struggle grows, and Hyperliquid co-founder Jeff Yan says the 24-hour clock is not onchain finance's true differentiator.

P.S. Don't forget to check out The Latent, our new sister website covering AI. Get The Latent Daily here and all other The Block newsletters here.

Robinhood to launch perps, weekend stock trading for US users

Robinhood plans to launch perpetual futures trading for eligible U.S. users in the coming months, alongside 24/7 trading for select U.S. equities.

• The perps will cover bitcoin, ether, Solana, XRP, Dogecoin, ADA, LINK and HYPE, with up to 10x leverage on bitcoin and ether and 3x on the other perpetual futures.
• The offering will be supported by Bitstamp and charge 0.01% per trade through the end of the year.
  Robinhood's planned 24/7 equities trading, pending regulatory review, will initially cover a curated list of stocks and ETFs and be supported by Bruce ATS.
• Robinhood also introduced Robinhood Agents, allowing users to build AI agents within its app for strategies, research or automated trading.
• More than 150,000 users have opened agentic trading accounts since Robinhood launched the service in May, with agents now using its tools nearly 30 million times a day.

Kalshi to end liquidity incentive program amid wash trading allegations

Kalshi plans to end its "Volume Incentive Program" no earlier than Oct. 13, according to a filing with the CFTC.

• Launched in March 2023, the program paid traders from reward pools based on their share of eligible volume, with the aim of boosting liquidity and enhancing pricing efficiency.
• The move comes as the CFTC was reportedly examining trades on Kalshi following allegations that repeated trades of around $5,500 inflated ether perpetual futures volume. Kalshi has said it was not under investigation over the matter and that wash trading does not occur on its platform.
• Kalshi's monthly volume reached $52.98 billion in September as of Sept. 29, surpassing August's $38.67 billion and marking an all-time high, though September data remains incomplete.

Standard Chartered sees over 600% upside for ENA, expects USDe to hit $40 billion by 2028

Standard Chartered Bank initiated coverage of Ethena with a $2 price target for ENA by the end of 2028, implying roughly 669% upside from its $0.26 price on Wednesday.

• The bank expects USDe outstanding supply to grow more than eightfold, from $4.9 billion today to about $40 billion by the end of 2028.
• Standard Chartered said Ethena is broadening its sources of yield as returns from crypto basis trades have fallen, highlighting real-world assets, DeFi and institutional lending, liquid stablecoins, and equity and commodity-linked basis trades.
• The bank said that if USDe reaches $40 billion while ENA remains at its current price, annualized buybacks would equal about 23% of ENA's circulating value, a level it considers unsustainable. It expects ENA's price to rise until the buyback rate settles at a lower level.

FCA starts accepting crypto authorization applications ahead of 2027 regime

The UK Financial Conduct Authority has opened its crypto authorization process ahead of a new regulatory regime taking effect on Oct. 25, 2027.

• Crypto firms that want to continue operating in the UK have until Feb. 28, 2027, to apply for authorization.
• The new regime covers companies involved in activities including trading, staking and digital asset custody, and introduces requirements around cryptoasset admissions and disclosures, market abuse, prudential standards and consumer protection.
• The FCA said firms will have to meet requirements covering consumer protection, customer-asset safeguarding, market integrity and financial resilience. Existing registration under the Money Laundering Regulations will not automatically convert into FCA authorization.

White House weighs new CFTC event contract rules in growing prediction market power struggle

The White House is weighing two proposed CFTC rules tied to prediction markets as the agency seeks to assert its jurisdiction despite pushback from states.

• The CFTC filed proposals with the White House's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs to "further" the definition of swap to include event contracts and to "exclude casino-style gambling products."
• The dispute centers in part on sports contracts, with the CFTC arguing that most prediction market contracts, including those involving sports, are swaps under its federal jurisdiction, while states have challenged platforms under their gambling laws.

In the next 24 hours

• U.S. weekly jobless claims and September manufacturing PMI data are due Thursday, with Fed Governor Christopher Waller, Vice Chairs Philip Jefferson and Michelle Bowman, and Fed Governor Lisa Cook scheduled to speak.
• Euro area September manufacturing PMI and August unemployment data are due Thursday, while the ECB holds a General Council meeting and President Christine Lagarde is scheduled to speak.
• Korea Blockchain Week continues Thursday in Seoul.
• Sui (SUI) and EigenLayer (EIGEN) are among the crypto projects set for token unlocks.

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