The Commodity Futures Trading Commission cleared Coinbase to offer crypto perpetual futures to US customers on May 29, 2026, marking the first US exchange granted access to the product that dominates global crypto trading. According to The Block, Coinbase's pre-IPO perps are USDC-settled contracts with 24/7 trading, no expiry, no rollover, and automatically convert into a standard perp contract if and when a company completes an IPO. The approval allows Coinbase to connect US customers to perpetual contracts listed on its offshore affiliate Deribit, which Coinbase acquired for $2.9 billion and holds more than $31 billion in Bitcoin options open interest. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong framed the clearance, stating US users had been shut out of roughly 80 percent of global crypto markets, ending that regulatory gap. The exchange will launch its own US Perpetual-Style Futures product on July 21, 2026, designed to mirror global perps while staying inside CFTC rules.
Kalshi has officially launched CFTC-approved Bitcoin perpetual futures for U.S. traders, marking a historic moment as the first regulated crypto perpetual futures product available domestically. The platform's BTCPERP contract, approved by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on May 29, 2026, tracks Bitcoin's spot price with no expiration date, providing continuous exposure without fixed settlement prices. As reported by Kalshi, the contract follows approval under Commission Regulation 40.3, with the platform showing funding rate history in transaction records to give users access to key perpetual futures pricing tools. This approval represents the first Bitcoin perpetual born on a registered US exchange, creating a genuine structural milestone in U.S. crypto derivatives access.
The launch addresses a significant market gap, as perpetual futures volume reached $61.7 trillion in 2025, up 29% from 2024, according to Reuters. However, offshore perpetual futures volume reached $92.9 trillion in 2025, with much of this activity concentrated on offshore platforms like Binance and Hyperliquid. Perpetual futures dominate global crypto trading because they offer no expiry, funding-rate tracking, and extreme leverage up to 50-to-1, allowing traders to control positions worth 50 times their actual capital. Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour told CNBC's Squawk on the Street that perpetual futures represent "the purest form of trading" and framed the launch as part of Kalshi's move beyond prediction markets into a fuller derivatives exchange model. The company, valued at $22 billion after a May 2026 funding round, plans to add more than a dozen cryptocurrencies if regulators approve them.
Kraken has announced plans to launch CFTC-regulated Bitcoin perpetual futures within the next 30 days for eligible U.S. institutional clients. According to reports from crypto.news, the exchange will offer these contracts through Bitnomial Exchange, the CFTC-regulated venue owned by Kraken parent Payward. The perpetual futures will be available through NinjaTrader Clearing, which operates as Kraken Derivatives US and is registered as a futures commission merchant. This competitive response follows Kalshi's regulatory milestone, with Kraken positioning itself to capture market share in the newly regulated U.S. perpetual futures space. Meanwhile, Coinbase already offers standard crypto perps for eligible users in supported jurisdictions outside the U.S. through Coinbase International Exchange for institutions and Coinbase Advanced for retail, while Coinbase Derivatives Exchange serves U.S. clients. The CFTC clearance is, in large part, a competitive strike aimed at Hyperliquid, the dominant decentralized perpetuals venue that offers self-custody, no identity checks, and very high leverage, which the regulated US products cannot replicate.
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig previewed the regulatory opening in March 2026, stating that U.S.-listed perpetual futures were expected "in the next month or so." After the Kalshi approval, Selig called the move "a major step forward" in President Trump's plan to make the United States the crypto capital of the world. The CFTC issued comprehensive guidance stating that contract designs can vary by asset and that case-by-case review remains appropriate for products outside approved orders. The agency noted that crypto asset derivatives may fit round-the-clock markets due to digital infrastructure and global market service. The timing of this approval is particularly significant, as it arrived just days before a leverage cascade liquidated around $1.8 billion in crypto positions over three days, demonstrating vividly the risks associated with extreme leverage products. The regulatory framework includes tighter margin requirements, position limits, volatility controls, and know-your-customer identity checks that the offshore products lack, while preserving the funding-rate mechanism that makes perpetual futures function.
