Kraken has rolled out perpetual futures for eligible U.S. customers through Bitnomial, a derivatives platform licensed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The launch, announced on June 15, allows traders to access spot, margin, futures, and perpetual contracts from a single Kraken Pro account, eliminating the need to shuttle capital between separate venues.
Perpetual futures are the dominant product in crypto derivatives, accounting for over $61.7 trillion in global trading volume in 2025. Unlike traditional futures that expire on a fixed date, perpetuals let traders hold positions indefinitely, with funding payments keeping contract prices aligned with the underlying asset.
Bitnomial acquisition brings perpetual futures onshore
Central to the offering is Kraken's acquisition of Bitnomial, completed earlier this year by parent company Payward. Bitnomial holds exchange, clearinghouse, and brokerage licenses from the CFTC, enabling Kraken to offer perpetual futures within the regulator's framework. The integration allows traders to use a single collateral pool across perpetuals and other derivatives, rather than moving assets between platforms.
Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward and Kraken, said the goal was to place spot, margin, futures, and perpetual contracts inside one account structure so traders don't have to spread capital across multiple exchanges. John Palmer, Kraken's global head of derivatives, noted that previously traders faced operational friction because perpetuals and other positions often had to be managed on different venues; the new setup gives clients access to both from one account through a single counterparty.
Coinbase received similar approval days earlier
The move comes just days after rival exchange Coinbase won regulatory approval to connect U.S. users to global perpetual futures liquidity. On June 11, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the approval would let American traders tap a market that had largely developed offshore due to regulatory restrictions. Coinbase plans to route domestic users through Deribit, the derivatives exchange it acquired earlier this year for $2.9 billion.
Both developments signal a shift by U.S. regulators to permit regulated access to products long concentrated on offshore platforms, giving domestic traders new ways to participate in crypto derivatives while staying within compliance requirements.