Kalshi Wins CFTC Nod for First US Bitcoin Perpetuals

Perpetual futures are the single most heavily traded product in crypto, and until last week no American could legally trade one on a domestic exchange. That changed on May 29, when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC, the federal regulator for US derivatives) approved Kalshi’s BTCPERP, the first perpetual futures contract ever listed on a U.S.-regulated exchange. The contract references the spot price of Bitcoin and clears the way for onshore access to a market Americans previously reached only through foreign platforms.

The same week, Coinbase secured its own route into the same market through the offshore venue Deribit. The harder question is no longer whether the product is legal at home. It is whether onshore exchanges can pull trading volume back from platforms that spent a decade building the deepest order books in the business.

The Offshore Moat That Just Cracked

A perpetual future, or perp, is a derivative that tracks an asset’s price with leverage and never expires. Instead of a settlement date, it uses a funding rate that periodically passes payments between long and short traders to keep the contract tethered to spot. That design lets a trader hold a leveraged position indefinitely, which is why perps became the workhorse of crypto speculation.

For years the workhorse lived abroad. Venues such as Binance, Bybit, OKX and Deribit dominated perpetuals because US rules left no compliant way to list them onshore. American traders who wanted in either used offshore accounts or stayed out. That regulatory gap, not a technology gap, was the moat.

The scale of what sat behind that moat is the reason the approval matters.

• 80% of global crypto trading volume runs through derivatives rather than spot markets, according to figures cited around the approvals.
• $90 trillion in annual offshore perpetuals volume in 2025, up from $28 trillion in 2023, per data Kalshi shared.
• Zero US-regulated venues offered a true crypto perpetual before May 29.

Inside Kalshi’s BTCPERP Contract

Kalshi, the prediction-market platform best known for letting users trade on election and sports outcomes, filed the BTCPERP contract and won a formal order of approval from the CFTC on the morning of May 29. The contract tracks Bitcoin through the CF Benchmarks Bitcoin Real Time Index (BRTI, a continuously calculated price gauge audited by KPMG and built from transactions across major trading platforms).

The mechanics follow the offshore template, now wrapped in a regulated exchange. Funding rates reset every eight hours and appear in a trader’s transaction history. There is no expiry. Leverage on perpetual contracts of this kind typically runs as high as up to 50-to-1, which magnifies both gains and losses.

Kalshi has opened a waitlist and signaled it aims to go live within roughly a month. The firm also plans to extend perpetuals to more than a dozen currencies, pending further regulatory review, according to Kalshi’s launch announcement for US perpetual futures.

Chief executive Tarek Mansour framed the move as a step change for the company.

This marks Kalshi’s evolution from prediction market leader to next-gen derivatives exchange.

Mansour said in the same statement that onshore, safe and regulated perps would improve capital allocation and risk management for American businesses.

Coinbase Opens a Second Front Through Deribit

Kalshi was not alone. Alongside the approval order, the CFTC issued a no-action position that lets Coinbase, the largest US crypto exchange, connect domestic customers to perpetual futures and options listed on Deribit, the derivatives venue Coinbase bought for $2.9 billion last year. Staff said certain crypto perpetual contracts may qualify as foreign futures under Commission Regulation 30.1, which gives Coinbase a legal lane that does not require listing the products itself.

Coinbase confirmed on May 29 that its Coinbase Financial Markets unit now offers US clients access to global crypto derivatives, with Deribit options live first and perpetual-style futures to follow. The company has flagged a broader rollout under Coinbase’s July 21 perpetual-style futures plan. Institutional clients can begin onboarding first, with retail access and additional collateral types expanding over time.

The Deribit catalogue is broad, covering perpetuals on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Dogecoin and other tokens. Chief executive Brian Armstrong said the firm had become the only regulated platform able to connect US users to global crypto options and perpetual futures. Chief Legal Officer (CLO) Paul Grewal called it a massive first for the industry. The mechanics and broader stakes are laid out in our report on how Coinbase opened global crypto derivatives to US traders.

Two Routes To the Same Market

Kalshi and Coinbase reached the same destination through different doors. One built a homegrown contract and won an approval order. The other plugged into an offshore venue it already owns and leaned on a no-action position. The table below sets the two approaches side by side.

The split matters because it gives the CFTC two templates at once: a domestically listed contract and a bridge to foreign venues. The no-action letter even notes that other US exchanges may reference the same guidance when seeking similar permission.

Selig’s CFTC Picks Up the Pace

The throughline is a regulator moving faster than it has in years. CFTC Chair Michael Selig cast the decisions as a deliberate effort to bring offshore activity home rather than chase it with enforcement.

Today’s action to onshore crypto asset perpetuals reflects the CFTC’s commitment to fostering responsible innovation while ensuring that these novel products are traded on regulated exchanges that uphold customer protections and market integrity.

Selig called the approval a historic action and said the agency had used every tool at its disposal to onshore crypto perpetuals, charting a path for one of the most liquid segments of crypto to sit inside the US regulatory framework.

The perps order fits a pattern. The same agency recently moved to let firms post tokenized assets as trading collateral, detailed in our coverage of the CFTC pilot greenlighting tokenized collateral in derivatives. It is also operating against a noisy political backdrop, with the chair pushing new crypto legislation as covered in our piece on the CFTC chair’s push for new crypto laws. The order itself is published as the CFTC’s approval of the BTCPERP contract.

What Onshore Venues Still Have To Win

Approval is the start of the contest, not the end. Offshore platforms did not grow to $90 trillion in annual volume because regulation blocked everyone else. They did it by stacking years of liquidity, and that is the asset hardest to replicate. A regulated venue with thin order books offers worse pricing and wider spreads, which keeps serious traders where the depth already is.

Several pressure points will decide how much volume actually migrates.

• Liquidity bootstrapping. Kalshi and Coinbase must seed deep books fast, or traders stay on platforms with tighter spreads.
• Leverage in retail hands. Contracts that allow leverage up to 50-to-1 can wipe out positions in minutes, raising the stakes for customer-protection rules.
• Competition at the gate. Polymarket, Kalshi’s chief prediction-market rival, is also moving toward crypto perpetuals, and traditional venues will not cede the lane quietly.
• Scope creep. Expansion to a dozen-plus currencies depends on further reviews that could slow or narrow the rollout.

For now, the regulatory wall that kept American traders offshore has a gate in it. Whether that gate becomes a highway depends on liquidity, and liquidity is decided by traders, not orders.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are Bitcoin perpetual futures now legal in the US?

Yes. On May 29, 2026, the CFTC approved Kalshi’s BTCPERP, the first true Bitcoin perpetual contract listed on a US-regulated exchange, and separately cleared Coinbase to connect US clients to perpetuals on Deribit.

What is a perpetual future?

It is a leveraged derivative that tracks an asset’s price and has no expiry date. A funding rate, reset at set intervals, passes payments between long and short traders to keep the contract close to the spot price.

When can Americans start trading on Kalshi?

Kalshi has opened a waitlist and signaled it aims to launch BTCPERP within about a month of the May 29 approval. Coinbase has Deribit options live for institutions now, with perpetual-style futures rolling out around July 21.

How is Kalshi’s BTCPERP priced?

BTCPERP references the CF Benchmarks Bitcoin Real Time Index, a continuously calculated, KPMG-audited price gauge built from transactions across major trading platforms. Funding rates reset every eight hours.

How much leverage do these contracts offer?

Perpetual contracts of this type commonly allow leverage as high as 50-to-1, which amplifies both gains and losses and is a key reason regulators stress customer-protection safeguards.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice. Crypto perpetual futures are high-risk, leveraged products that can result in the total loss of capital, particularly at high leverage. Consult a qualified financial professional before trading. Figures and dates are accurate as of publication.