KuCoin is extending its around-the-clock equity derivatives offering with five USDT-settled perpetual contracts tied to Trump Media, eBay, Flex, RUM Group and Twist Bioscience. The exchange scheduled all five to begin trading at 09:00 UTC on November 13, more than five hours before the regular U.S. stock market opens.
Each contract supports leverage of up to 20 times, funding settlements every eight hours and a funding-rate limit of plus or minus 2% per interval. They are synthetic derivatives: customers gain exposure to movements in the referenced share price, not ownership of the companies, voting rights or delivery of stock.
The expansion is not KuCoin’s first attempt to let crypto traders speculate on U.S. stocks outside Wall Street’s timetable. It already operated 161 traditional-finance perpetual pairs as of late September. The new launch instead puts attention on how a leveraged, continuously traded contract is valued when its underlying security is not trading in the normal cash session.
Five new contracts open ahead of the U.S. cash session
KuCoin’s November 13 listing schedule identifies five stock-linked symbols, all starting at the same time:
| Perpetual | Referenced Nasdaq security |
|---|---|
| DJTUSDT | Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT) |
| EBAYUSDT | eBay (EBAY) |
| FLEXUSDT | Flex Ltd. (FLEX) |
| RUMUSDT | RUM Group, formerly Rumble (RUM) |
| TWSTUSDT | Twist Bioscience (TWST) |
The RUM reference follows the company’s current legal name, RUM Group Inc., which also appears in its November SEC filings. All five are U.S.-listed equities, but the derivative contracts operate on a crypto exchange and settle in Tether’s USDT rather than shares or cash delivered through a conventional stockbroker.
On November 13, the normal U.S. equity session starts at 14:30 UTC, or 9:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. KuCoin’s scheduled 09:00 UTC opening therefore falls five and a half hours earlier. A trader can take a position during that period, yet the underlying Nasdaq stock may have thinner premarket liquidity or no meaningful executable quote. The same issue returns overnight, on weekends and during U.S. holidays.
KuCoin’s earlier expansion to 161 TradFi futures pairs established this as an existing product line. Adding Trump Media and four more equities increases the range of names exposed to the same trading-hours mismatch; it does not create a new form of share ownership.
Out-of-hours mark prices use a tighter 5% band
KuCoin’s stock-index perpetual product documentation defines periods outside the underlying market’s regular session as low-liquidity periods. Its index price can be smoothed or subject to other limits when reliable live equity quotes are harder to obtain. The exchange reserves discretion to change index components and parameters as market conditions change.
During normal sessions, the mark-price calculation uses the median of several pricing inputs and constrains the result to within 8% of the index price. During low-liqudity sessions, it instead uses an exponentially weighted moving average of contract prices and a tighter 5% band around the index. KuCoin also describes a 300-second transition when changing calculation modes.
The mark price is used in margin and liquidation calculations. It is not the same as a guarantee that a trader can buy or sell the contract within 5% of the last Nasdaq quotation. Actual order-book prices may be different, and the underlying index itself can adjust when fresh price information arrives. A tighter mark band can soften one form of sudden repricing without removing gaps or liquidation risk when the equity market reopens.
Other crypto exchanges have adopted similar round-the-clock stock exposure. In October, Binance added four equity-linked perpetuals, including McDonald’s, with leverage up to 20x. The products allow trading outside conventional sessions, but their index and funding rules remain exchange-specific. That is a relevent distinction when comparing quotes for the same underlying company.
Funding and leverage add costs beyond a stock quote
The announced funding cap of ±2% applies to each eight-hour funding event, not to the overall return on the underlying stock. For a hypothetical $10,000 notional position, a 2% funding charge would be $200 at one settlement if the trader were on the paying side. That is an illustration of the cap, not evidence that any of the five contracts will actually reach it.
At 20x leverage, $500 of initial margin can control $10,000 of notional exposure before other margin and fee requirements. A 5% adverse move represents $500 in trading losses, potentially exhausting that starting margin before maintenance rules trigger liquidation. The overnight stock price isn’t obligated to move smoothly just because the perpetual stays open.
Unlike the separately offered tokenized-stock products discussed in DaveFinances’ analysis of ownership rights in tokenized securities, these perpetuals make no claim to represent held shares. A shareholder may be entitled to dividends and votes under the relevant legal structure; a perpetual trader instead receives the economic outcome of a margined derivative and its funding charges.
KuCoin said it can adjust tick sizes, maximum leverage and maintenance-margin requirements in response to risk conditions. It also limits product availability by jurisdiction. The listing notice gave no initial trading volumes, open-interest figures or measure of after-hours spreads, leaving actual uptake and pricing quality unconfirmed. The clock runs continuously; the underlying securities market still doesn’t.
Johan Shamshad is Editor-in-Chief at Dave Finances, covering financial markets, digital assets, trading platforms, brokers, fintech, payments and regulation. Since 2023, he has also worked as an editor at Gulf News, the UAE English-language newspaper published by Al Nisr Publishing LLC. His work focuses on market-moving developments, company disclosures, regulatory changes and trading infrastructure, with an emphasis on primary-source verification and practical context for traders and investors.