Kalshi files to launch perpetual futures tied to a U.S. stock index

Kalshi filed regulatory paperwork with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Aug. 18, seeking permission to launch perpetual futures linked to a stock index as it pushes further from prediction markets into traditional derivatives. The proposed contract, called US500, would track the MerQube U.S. Large Cap Index, which includes 500 large companies listed in the United States. Perpetual futures do not expire, do not require traders to hold the underlying asset, and use a funding-rate mechanism to stay tied to the spot price. At the end of May, Kalshi won approval to launch crypto perpetual futures and went live in June. The company later applied for perpetual futures tied to gold and silver, and this latest filing adds copper and stock index products to that list. Kalshi said global perpetual futures trading volume surpassed $90 trillion in 2025, and its own product crossed $1 billion in notional volume within a week of launch. The company’s move into perpetual futures has already drawn concern from traditional exchanges. CME Group and Cboe Global Markets had come under pressure after the U.S. approved domestic perpetual futures, and CME even filed a lawsuit in federal court over the regulatory approval. As of publication, CME was up about 1.26% and Cboe was up about 0.12%.