Prediction market operator Kalshi has filed a proposed rule change with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and submitted an approval application to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to launch perpetual futures tied to individual U.S. stocks.
The proposal was filed on the same day as a similar application from Coinbase. Both companies are seeking to bring perpetual futures, a product widely used in crypto markets, into the traditional stock market.
How the contracts would work
According to the filing, the contracts would not have a preset expiration date. Instead, periodic funding payments between long and short positions would be used to keep the contracts aligned with the price of the underlying stock.
Kalshi said the products would be handled as security futures and cleared through Kalshi Klear, its CFTC-registered clearinghouse.
Kalshi’s existing crypto-linked offerings
Before this filing, Kalshi had already offered perpetual futures in the U.S. tied to Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and XRP. Its Bitcoin perpetual contract received CFTC approval in May this year.
Competition in stock-linked perpetuals is widening
Competition around perpetual futures linked to individual U.S. equities is also expanding. Payward, Kraken’s parent company, has filed through its Bitnomial Exchange unit and plans to initially offer perpetual futures tied to 10 U.S. stocks, including Tesla, Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon. The company is also aiming for trading five days a week, 24 hours a day.
Timing of the filings
These applications were submitted after the CLARITY Act failed to advance in the Senate on Sept. 15. SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the agency would act decisively within its existing statutory authority, whether or not legislation moves forward, to provide regulatory certainty for investors and entrepreneurs.