Kalshi Moves to Bring Crypto-Style Perpetual Contracts to U.S. Equities
TREE NEWS reports: Kalshi, the CFTC-regulated prediction market platform, has filed rule-change proposals with both the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to list perpetual futures tied to individual U.S. stocks. The filing, submitted on Friday, marks one of the most direct attempts yet to transplant a derivative structure popular in crypto markets into the traditional equity arena.
Under the proposal, the contracts would carry no fixed expiration date. Instead, a periodic funding payment between long and short holders would keep the contract price anchored to the underlying stock — the same mechanism that underpins perpetual swaps on crypto exchanges such as Binance and Bybit. Kalshi intends to treat the products as “security futures products” and clear them through Kalshi Klear, its CFTC-registered clearinghouse. The proposal has not yet been approved.
Why This Matters
The filing lands at a moment of accelerating convergence between crypto derivatives and traditional finance. Coinbase unveiled a parallel plan for standalone single-stock perpetual contracts on the same day, signaling that major U.S. venues view perpetuals as a viable bridge product. Kalshi already offers perpetual trading on major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin after securing CFTC approval, giving it a regulatory track record that could ease the path for equity-linked versions.
If approved, the contracts could reshape how U.S. retail and institutional traders express directional views on equities. Perpetuals offer continuous exposure without roll costs, a feature that has made them the dominant instrument in crypto. Applying that structure to stocks raises thorny questions, however: how funding rates interact with dividend schedules, how market makers hedge without a natural expiry, and whether the SEC — which has historically been cautious about novel equity derivatives — will accept the design.
The Regulatory Tightrope
Because the contracts reference securities, they fall under joint SEC-CFTC oversight, a jurisdictional overlap that has slowed past product approvals. Kalshi’s decision to label them “security futures products” and route clearing through a CFTC-registered entity suggests a deliberate effort to stay within existing frameworks rather than seek new exemptions. Still, the SEC may scrutinize whether perpetual funding payments constitute a form of swap or security-based swap requiring separate registration.
Forward Look
The proposal is a test case for whether crypto-native derivative mechanics can be domesticated for U.S. equities. Approval would likely accelerate similar filings from brokerages and exchanges, while rejection could push innovation offshore. Either way, the line between crypto derivatives and traditional equity products is thinning — and regulators, not technologists, will decide how fast it disappears.
