The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has approved prediction market platform Kalshi to offer perpetual futures linked to Bitcoin prices in the United States. Kalshi stated that it aims to launch the product within the next month. This signifies that crypto perpetual contracts, long dominated by offshore platforms, are further entering the regulated U.S. domestic market.
Kalshi advances its derivatives business.
Kalshi calls this launch its most significant product expansion since the introduction of event contracts. With the approval of the new product, the company is further transitioning from a prediction market platform to a derivatives exchange, and will face more direct competition with platforms such as Polymarket.
Perpetual futures allow traders to continuously bet on price fluctuations without a fixed expiration date. Currently, this market is still mainly dominated by offshore platforms and decentralized exchanges, with Hyperliquid being one of the major players.
The US market continues to loosen restrictions on similar products.
In its blog, Kalshi described it as "the first perpetual futures" product in the United States. However, the CFTC had already approved Bitnomial to offer a similar product last December, so Kalshi is not the first platform to receive regulatory approval.
In its announcement, the CFTC stated that this approval requires Kalshi to continue complying with the relevant rules under the Commodity Exchange Act. The regulator also noted that the design of perpetual contracts is not necessarily applicable to all asset classes.
Platform competition is intensifying.
Prior to Kalshi, Coinbase and Kraken also launched futures products last year that attempted to mimic the characteristics of perpetual contracts. While these contracts are not truly perpetual contracts, they also targeted the US market's demand for crypto derivatives.
Polymarket also announced last month that it plans to offer perpetual futures to its clients, mentioning in its promotional materials assets such as Nvidia, Coinbase, silver, and gold, as well as trading with leverage up to 10x.
Kalshi CEO Tark Mansour stated that regulated, domestically produced perpetual products help U.S. companies with asset allocation and risk management. According to Kalshi, the perpetual contract market saw $90 trillion in trading volume last year, an asset class previously largely inaccessible to U.S. institutions.
