ICE, OKX to Launch Oil Perpetual Futures Settling to Brent, WTI

Intercontinental Exchange and crypto exchange OKX announced plans to launch oil-linked perpetual futures that will settle to ICE’s Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) benchmark prices. The contracts were revealed on Friday and will be offered only in jurisdictions where OKX is licensed to provide perpetual futures trading.

Perpetual futures, often called perps, allow traders to take long or short positions on an asset’s price without buying the physical commodity and without a set expiration date. Positions can be held continuously while funding payments between long and short holders keep contract prices close to the benchmark.

OKX said the contracts will reference ICE’s Brent and WTI benchmark prices for settlement. The product is the first collaboration between the two firms and follows a strategic investment by ICE in OKX in March that valued the crypto exchange at $25 billion.

Trabue Bland, ICE’s senior vice president of futures exchanges, described the contracts as based on “deep, liquid, transparent, and global oil markets.” Haider Rafique, OKX’s global managing partner, said the contracts are aimed at retail traders and designed to give them regulated access to energy benchmarks.

Trading availability will depend on local licensing and regulatory permissions. An OKX spokesperson confirmed the contracts will settle directly to ICE benchmark prices used across traditional energy markets, and the exchanges said the products will operate under applicable regulatory frameworks in each jurisdiction.

Other centralized crypto exchanges have introduced similar products this year. In April, one major exchange added perpetual futures tied to WTI, Brent and natural gas, and another expanded its commodity-linked offerings to include oil perpetuals. Market participants have shown high activity in oil perpetuals during periods of elevated oil-price volatility.

Decentralized platforms have also expanded into oil-linked perpetual trading. A decentralized derivatives venue entered the top 10 by trading volume in the first quarter of 2026 with roughly $500 billion in activity and reported Brent crude among its most traded markets. In mid-May, ICE and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange asked U.S. regulators to review that platform’s expansion into commodity trading, citing concerns about anonymous trading and limited oversight that they said could pose risks to energy markets and be used to evade sanctions.

OKX did not name a public launch date beyond the announcement. The exchange reiterated that contract availability will follow local licensing and regulatory permission.