Kalshi joins Coinbase with filing for US stock perpetual futures
Prediction-market firm Kalshi has filed with U.S. regulators to offer perpetual futures tied to individual U.S. stocks, proposing contracts without preset expirations that use periodic funding payments to track underlying shares. The company submitted the rule change to the SEC and sent the proposal to the CFTC for approval, joining Coinbase and Payward/Bitnomial in seeking to bring crypto-style perpetuals to traditional equity markets.
Why It Matters
If approved, these products would extend a derivatives format popular in crypto trading to single U.S. equities and could broaden retail access to leverage-based instruments under U.S. regulatory oversight. Multiple firms filing similar proposals underscores growing industry momentum and regulatory focus after recent legislative uncertainty around crypto rules.
Key Facts
- Filing party: Kalshi
- Regulators notified: Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
- Contract type: Perpetual futures tied to individual U.S. stocks
- Clearinghouse: Kalshi Klear (CFTC-registered)
- Crypto perpetuals already offered by Kalshi: Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL), XRP (XRP)
Kalshi has filed a proposed rule change with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and submitted the plan to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to list perpetual futures contracts keyed to individual U.S. stocks. The contracts would not carry a preset expiration date and would employ periodic funding payments between long and short positions to keep contract prices aligned with the underlying equities. Kalshi said the contracts would be treated as security futures and cleared through its CFTC-registered clearinghouse, Kalshi Klear.
The filing coincides with a separate proposal from Coinbase to offer single-stock perpetual futures and follows a similar application from Payward, the parent company of Kraken, which filed through its Bitnomial Exchange. Payward has said it plans to initially offer perpetuals on 10 U.S. equities — including Tesla, Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon — and aims to provide 24/5 trading. The influx of filings indicates multiple market participants are pursuing the same crypto-style derivatives structure for traditional equities.
Kalshi already operates perpetual futures tied to cryptocurrencies in the U.S., listing contracts for Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and XRP. The company previously received CFTC approval for its Bitcoin perpetual contract in May. The new stock-linked perpetuals would expand Kalshi’s product set from crypto underlyings to individual equities if regulators grant the requested approvals.
The proposals come against a backdrop of recent legislative developments: the CLARITY Act failed to advance in the Senate on Sept. 15, falling short of the 60 votes needed to proceed. Following that vote, SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the agency would act within its existing statutory authority to provide regulatory certainty for investors and entrepreneurs “with or without legislation.” The firms’ filings place those regulatory decisions squarely in focus as agencies evaluate whether and how to permit perpetuals tied to U.S. stocks.
Keep Reading
REX launches 2x leveraged ETF tied to Bitcoin treasury firm Strive
Grayscale Is Making Its Red-Hot Zcash ETF More Affordable
Bitcoin's Sharpest Rally in Two Years Ran Almost Entirely on Short Liquidations
