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Kalshi got the green light. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission formally approved the event-based futures platform to offer cryptocurrency perpetual futures contracts — a move that opens a new lane for a company that’s pretty much built its reputation on prediction markets rather than traditional crypto trading.
And Coinbase didn’t walk away empty-handed either. The CFTC issued the exchange a no-action letter, which basically means the agency won’t chase enforcement action against Coinbase while the platform works through the compliance maze for perpetual futures. It’s not full approval — not even close — but it’s a meaningful signal that the regulator isn’t looking to punish good-faith actors trying to get things right.
Both decisions landed alongside a broader advisory from the CFTC laying out what platforms actually need to do if they want to run 24/7 crypto futures trading. That’s the part that probably matters most to the wider market.
What the No-Action Letter Actually Means
No-action letters get misread constantly. They’re not approvals. They don’t give a platform a permanent pass. What they do is buy time — the CFTC essentially says it won’t bring enforcement while a company works toward full compliance. For Coinbase, that’s a real benefit. The exchange is one of the biggest names in crypto, and operating under even a temporary regulatory cloud on a new product line would be messy. The no-action position clears some of that uncertainty without pretending the compliance work is done.
Kalshi’s situation is different. Kalshi got actual approval, not a placeholder. The platform can move forward with offering perpetual futures in the crypto space. That’s a bigger deal for Kalshi specifically because perpetual futures — contracts with no expiration date — are among the most traded instruments in crypto globally. Getting CFTC clearance to offer them puts Kalshi in a competitive position it didn’t have before.
Perpetual futures are kind of wild products by traditional finance standards. They never settle in the conventional sense. Instead, they use funding rate mechanisms to keep contract prices tethered to the underlying asset’s spot price. That means platforms running them need continuous oversight, real-time risk systems, and serious infrastructure. There’s no closing bell, no quarterly reset. It’s on all the time, every day.
The 24/7 Trading Guidance
The advisory the CFTC put out covers the operational requirements for platforms that want to run these contracts around the clock. Crypto markets don’t sleep — that’s been true for years — but regulated derivatives markets in the U.S. have traditionally worked on schedules tied to business hours and clearing windows. Bridging that gap isn’t simple.
The guidance addresses risk management specifically. Platforms need systems capable of handling the unique pressures of non-stop trading: margin calls at 3 a.m., liquidity crunches over weekends, volatility spikes that don’t wait for a Monday morning open. Customer protection measures are in there too. The CFTC seems to want platforms to prove they’ve thought through what happens when things go wrong at an hour when most traditional finance desks are offline.
It’s worth noting that the CFTC releasing this kind of operational guidance at all is a shift. For a long stretch, crypto derivatives sat in a murky space where the rules weren’t clearly written for the realities of digital asset markets. Platforms either avoided U.S. registration or operated with significant legal uncertainty. The combination of Kalshi’s approval, Coinbase’s no-action letter, and a formal advisory on 24/7 trading suggests the agency is trying to build a workable framework rather than just police the edges.
What Comes Next for Both Platforms
Kalshi needs to actually build out and launch the product now that approval is in hand. That’s not trivial — perpetual futures require infrastructure that’s different from the event contracts Kalshi has been running. Coinbase, meanwhile, needs to keep moving on compliance. The no-action letter won’t last forever, and the exchange will need to meet the CFTC’s standards to get to the same place Kalshi is now.
Other platforms watching this are probably running their own calculations. If the CFTC is willing to approve perpetual crypto futures and issue no-action letters while companies get compliant, that’s a different regulatory posture than the enforcement-first approach that’s defined parts of the last few years. Whether that posture holds is unclear yet.
The advisory’s operational requirements — risk management, customer protections, continuous oversight — are the actual test. Approval and no-action letters open doors. Meeting the ongoing standards is what keeps them open.
Kalshi’s approval covers cryptocurrency perpetual futures contracts specifically, with no expiration date on those instruments.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did the CFTC approve Kalshi to offer?
The CFTC gave Kalshi formal approval to offer cryptocurrency perpetual futures contracts, expanding the platform beyond its existing event-based futures products.
What does Coinbase’s no-action letter from the CFTC mean in practice?
It means the CFTC won’t pursue enforcement action against Coinbase while the exchange works toward full compliance for offering perpetual futures contracts — it’s a temporary measure, not a permanent approval.
