According to Kalshi's latest reporting, the company's crypto perpetual futures have reached a record daily open interest of $17.98 million, marking significant growth in regulated crypto derivatives trading. This milestone demonstrates that U.S. traders are increasingly embracing CFTC-regulated perpetual futures as an alternative to offshore venues. The record open interest reflects growing demand for leveraged crypto price exposure through a regulated platform, with traders taking both long and short positions on major cryptocurrency assets without owning the underlying tokens.
According to reports from Reuters, Kalshi filed with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on August 18 to launch perpetual futures tied to a major US stock index and copper, extending a leverage-trading structure it pioneered in Bitcoin (BTC) earlier this year. The filing puts a prediction market operator in direct competition with CME Group and Cboe Global Markets, both exchanges that have built decades of business on contracts with fixed expiration dates. Kalshi's proposed US500 perpetual futures would track the MerQube U.S. Large Cap Index, which measures the performance of 500 large-cap U.S. stocks, allowing retail and institutional traders to speculate on stock market direction without buying shares directly. The equity index filing seeks CFTC approval, with Reuters reporting that broad-based equity baskets fall within the CFTC's regulatory purview rather than the SEC's, meaning Kalshi would not need SEC approval for these contracts. The company also filed for perpetual futures tied to industrial metal copper, with each contract representing 1,000 pounds of copper and a minimum tick of $0.0005 per pound, using the Pyth Network XCU/USD price feed as its underlying price index.
As reported by Reuters, perpetual futures, known as perps, carry no expiration date and use funding fees to keep the contract price aligned with the underlying asset. According to Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour, the Bitcoin perpetual futures contract crossed $1 billion in trading volume within its first week and topped $5.5 billion within two weeks of launching June 3. The contract was the first allowed on a US-regulated exchange after CFTC approval in May. The company noted that perps recorded more than $90 trillion in global volume in 2025, a market that U.S. traders could previously access only by going through unregulated venues outside the country. Kalshi had submitted a CFTC proposal for perps on precious metals such as gold and silver a month earlier, and filed for metals products in July, marking its continued expansion into the broader derivatives market. As of June 3, 2026, Kalshi's guide listed 13 CFTC-approved crypto perpetual-futures contracts with maximum leverage of 5.9x for Bitcoin, 4.5x for Ethereum, and 2.0x for Shiba Inu, alongside contracts tied to other crypto assets.
According to Reuters, Kalshi's stock filing lands as CME Group pursues a lawsuit over crypto perps, arguing the Bitcoin perpetual is a swap, not a future. Kalshi and the CFTC disagree, maintaining it is simply a futures contract without a fixed expiration date. The stock index filing leans on the same argument, pointing to standardized contract sizes, central clearing, and margin requirements. Meanwhile, Cboe Global Markets launched Mini-S&P 500 binary options through Interactive Brokers in June, using fixed-settlement binary options rather than a perpetual structure. The CFTC has not yet indicated when it will rule on Kalshi's application, with the agency being cautious about new derivative products that could affect market stability. CME Group and CBOE Global Markets saw their shares slide in early June after the CFTC greenlighted domestic perps, with investors worried the new product would erode business at established futures exchanges; CME Group subsequently sued the CFTC in federal court to challenge the decision. Both stocks were higher on Tuesday, with CME Group stock up 2% and CBOE Global Markets stock rising 0.2%. The CFTC's decisions on US500 and COPPERPERP will show whether the agency is prepared to extend its perpetual futures framework from crypto into traditional equity and commodity markets while that legal challenge continues.
As reported by Reuters, Kalshi's filing represents a significant step in the company's evolution from a prediction market platform to a full-fledged derivatives exchange. The company became the first company to offer regulated domestic perpetual futures in the U.S. when the CFTC approved its bitcoin perpetual contract in late May. Kalshi's perpetual futures guide describes the product as allowing traders to take leveraged positions on crypto prices without owning the underlying assets, with funding rates charged every eight hours to keep prices aligned with spot markets. The company noted that perps recorded more than $90 trillion in global volume in 2025, a market that U.S. traders could previously access only by going through unregulated venues outside the country. BitMEX, the exchange that invented the offshore crypto perpetual swap in 2014, announced its closure in July with plans to close by September 23. Analysts have cited this closure as a sign the offshore era for perps may be ending, with US-regulated venues capturing that volume onshore instead. The CFTC's decision on Kalshi's application could set a regulatory precedent for future product approvals in traditional finance markets, with the company's $17.98 million open interest record beginning to demonstrate that regulated crypto perpetual futures are gaining traction among U.S. traders.
