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Kalshi just filed with the SEC and the CFTC to offer perpetual futures on individual US stocks. Coinbase did basically the same thing. And now the race is on to see who gets there first — and whether regulators will actually let either of them.
The filings are a pretty big deal. Perpetual futures, for anyone who hasn’t spent time in crypto markets, are contracts with no expiration date. Instead of rolling over a position every month or quarter, traders hold them as long as they want. The contracts stay anchored to the underlying asset’s price through periodic funding payments — essentially a balancing mechanism that keeps the perpetual’s price from drifting too far from the real thing. It’s a structure that’s been wildly popular in crypto for years. Now Kalshi and Coinbase want to bring it to Tesla, Nvidia, Apple, and the rest of the US equity market.
What Kalshi Actually Filed
Kalshi submitted its proposal to both the SEC and the CFTC. The company plans to treat these contracts as security futures products and clear them through Kalshi Klear, its own CFTC-registered clearinghouse. That’s not a small infrastructure detail — it means Kalshi is serious enough about this to route it through a clearing operation it already runs.
The CFTC hasn’t approved the proposal yet. Neither has the SEC. Both filings are pending.
Kalshi isn’t coming to this cold, either. The prediction market platform already offers perpetual futures on Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, and XRP in the US — that came after the CFTC approved its Bitcoin perpetual futures back in May. So Kalshi’s pitch here is basically: we’ve done this in crypto, we know how to run it, let us do it for stocks too.
Whether regulators see it that way is another question entirely.
Coinbase and Kraken Are Right Behind Them
Coinbase filed a similar proposal around the same time. The crypto exchange is chasing the same market segment — US stock perpetual futures — and it’s not hard to see why. Perpetuals generate enormous trading volume in crypto. If you can port that same product to equities and get regulatory sign-off, you’re potentially looking at a massive new revenue stream.
But Coinbase and Kalshi aren’t the only ones moving. Payward — that’s Kraken’s parent company — submitted its own proposal through Bitnomial Exchange. Bitnomial’s initial lineup would focus on perpetual futures tied to major US stocks: Tesla, Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon. They’re also targeting 24/5 trading hours, which would align more closely with how crypto markets already operate and how a lot of global investors actually want to trade.
Three separate entities pushing into the same space at roughly the same time. It’s crowded already, and nothing’s been approved yet.
The Regulatory Backdrop Is Complicated
Timing matters here. These filings landed shortly after the CLARITY Act failed to advance in the US Senate, falling short of the votes it needed. That bill was meant to draw clearer lines between what counts as a security versus a commodity in the digital asset world — lines that have caused years of confusion and legal battles across the industry.
It didn’t pass. And that’s a problem for anyone trying to build new financial products that sit at the intersection of crypto mechanics and traditional equity markets.
That said, SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the agency would keep acting within its existing authority to bring regulatory clarity to investors and businesses. That’s not nothing. It means the SEC isn’t just going to sit on its hands waiting for Congress to sort itself out.
Still, Kalshi’s CFTC approval remains pending. So does Coinbase’s. And the regulatory environment, while maybe slightly more open than it was a couple of years ago, is still murky enough that nobody should be counting on a quick green light.
The broader picture here is that traditional finance and crypto are colliding faster than most regulators probably expected. Perpetual futures were a crypto-native invention. Now they’re showing up in SEC filings tied to Apple and Amazon stock. Whether the agencies move fast enough to keep up — or slow things down while they figure out the rules — probably shapes how this whole thing plays out.
Bitnomial’s plan targets ten prominent US equities for its initial perpetual futures offerings.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is Kalshi proposing with its SEC and CFTC filings?
Kalshi filed to offer perpetual futures tied to individual US stocks, planning to clear them through its CFTC-registered clearinghouse, Kalshi Klear, and treating them as security futures products.
Which companies are competing to offer US stock perpetual futures?
Kalshi, Coinbase, and Payward — Kraken’s parent company, filing through Bitnomial Exchange — have all submitted proposals to offer perpetual futures on US stocks, with none yet approved.
Why It Matters
The introduction of stock perpetual futures by Kalshi and Coinbase could signify a pivotal moment in the evolution of derivatives trading in the U.S. financial markets. This move not only highlights the growing intersection between traditional finance and the crypto space but also raises important regulatory questions regarding the oversight of new financial products. How regulators respond to these filings may set a precedent for future innovations in trading structures and the overall regulatory landscape for digital assets.
