The Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued an Order for Approval on May 29, 2026, allowing Kalshi to list the BTCPERP Contract — a perpetual futures product tied to Bitcoin's spot price — on its designated contract market. It is the first time a U.S. regulator has approved a truly perpetual crypto futures contract for an American venue.
The CFTC approved the contract under Section 5c(c)(4) of the Commodity Exchange Act after Kalshi submitted the BTCPERP Contract for review on May 28. The order requires Kalshi to maintain the contract in full compliance with the Commodity Exchange Act and applicable CFTC regulations. The commission added a caveat: perpetual contract design "may not be suitable for all asset classes," and any company seeking to offer perps on other assets must submit for case-by-case review under Commission Regulation 40.3.
"This marks Kalshi's evolution from prediction market leader to next-gen derivatives exchange," CEO Tarek Mansour said in the company's announcement. Kalshi is aiming to launch crypto perpetuals within the next month, according to a company spokesperson, with plans covering more than a dozen currencies. Agricultural commodities will not be included.
The Bitnomial precedent is worth noting. The CFTC approved Bitnomial's perpetual-style contract under former chair Caroline Pham in December 2025, but that product carried a 25-year limit. Kalshi's BTCPERP has no expiry, making it the cleaner perpetual structure and the more significant regulatory milestone.
The approval lands directly in Hyperliquid's territory. The offshore decentralized exchange has dominated the perpetual futures market, which handled over $90 trillion in global trading volume in 2025 — a market Kalshi's own announcement called "entirely closed off to American institutions until now." Just two days before the CFTC order, ICE and NYSE parent Jeffrey Sprecher told the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference that he had been asking regulators for a level playing field: "Why are you prohibiting us from doing this when it's already happening?" The Friday order is a partial answer.
Coinbase moved the same day. The exchange announced Friday it can now connect U.S. institutional clients to global crypto options and perpetual futures liquidity through its CFTC-regulated futures business, extending the regulated onshore footprint on the same session as the Kalshi approval.
Polymarket, Kalshi's chief rival in prediction markets, has already said it plans to offer perpetual futures, citing assets including Nvidia, Coinbase, silver, and gold, with leverage up to 10x in its marketing materials. That sets up a direct product competition between the two platforms in the regulated perps space.
Sources: CFTC press release 9240-26 (May 29, 2026); Kalshi announcement; Decrypt reporting; ICE/Sprecher remarks; Coinbase blog.