Kalshi announced Friday the launch of perpetual futures contracts, making it the first company in U.S. history to offer the products on a regulated domestic exchange.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued an order approving KalshiEX's BTCPERP contract, a perpetual futures contract that references the spot price of bitcoin. The agency determined the contract complies with the Commodity Exchange Act and applicable CFTC regulations.
Unlike traditional futures contracts, perpetuals carry no expiration date, allowing holders to maintain positions indefinitely while gaining exposure to an asset's price movements. Offshore perpetuals grew from $28 trillion in annual volume in 2023 to over $90 trillion in 2025, according to Kalshi, but had not previously been available to U.S. investors through a regulated domestic exchange.
"This marks Kalshi's evolution from prediction market leader to next-gen derivatives exchange," Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said in a statement. "Onshore, safe, and regulated perps will improve capital allocation and risk management for countless American businesses."
Kalshi said it aims to launch crypto perpetuals on more than a dozen currencies, pending additional regulatory reviews. The company said perpetual futures on agricultural commodities will not be part of its product offerings. Funding rates are updated every eight hours.
As a condition of the approval, Kalshi must ensure the BTCPERP contract adheres to all relevant terms of the Commodity Exchange Act, the CFTC said. The commission noted that the perpetual contract design may not be suitable for all asset classes and encouraged market participants to engage with staff before submitting any perpetual contract on assets not covered by Friday's order.
Separately on Friday, a CoinDesk report noted the CFTC sent a no-action letter to Coinbase Financial Markets, clearing a path for the firm to route U.S. customers into offshore options and perpetuals through its Bermuda-based affiliate. CFTC Chairman Mike Selig called the Kalshi approval "a major step forward in delivering on President Trump's goal of cementing America as the crypto capital of the world," according to CoinDesk.
Because the CFTC's positions on perpetuals have been established through approvals and guidance rather than codified regulation, they remain vulnerable to reversal if agency leadership changes before Congress or the commission formalizes the rules, according to CoinDesk.