CFTC Greenlights Bitcoin Perpetual Futures, Kalshi and Coinbase Receive Go-Ahead on the Same Day
Taylor Wilson
The CFTC approved Kalshi and Coinbase to offer Bitcoin perpetual contracts on the same day, bringing the world's largest crypto derivatives market — $90 trillion in annual volume — inside U.S. regulation for the first time.
What are perpetual contracts, and why do they matter?
A perpetual contract — a futures contract that never expires, with price anchored to spot via a funding-rate mechanism — is the dominant derivative in crypto trading.
Last year this market hit $90 trillion in global volume, but nearly all of it traded outside the United States.
In plain terms = American investors were previously locked out of roughly 80% of the global crypto market. That barrier just came down.
What exactly did the CFTC approve?
The CFTC approved KalshiEX to list BTCPERP, a perpetual contract pegged to the Bitcoin price.
On the same day, it issued a no-action letter to Coinbase Financial Markets, allowing it to offer digital-commodity derivatives.
But this was a staff advisory opinion, not a formal rule — it carries no permanent force. Other perpetual-contract applications will be reviewed case by case.
What does this mean for Kalshi and Coinbase?
Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour called it a key step in evolving from "prediction-market leader" to a next-generation derivatives exchange. The company plans to go live within a month, then roll out perpetual contracts on more than ten cryptocurrencies.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said U.S. users had been locked out of most of the global crypto market — "but not anymore."
This means → both companies got their tickets on the same day, but through different doors: Kalshi via an exchange approval, Coinbase via a no-action letter. The legal foundations are not the same.
How does the competitive landscape shift?
Until now, the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid dominated this market, but it has been facing growing pressure from traditional financial institutions.
Rival Polymarket announced last month it plans to launch perpetual futures on stocks like Nvidia and Coinbase, plus gold and silver, with up to 10× leverage.
Yet Axios commentator Dan Primack noted that Kalshi is "several product lengths ahead" — Polymarket's U.S. version currently offers only sports-event betting, with no derivatives yet.
What should ordinary investors watch for?
CFTC Chair Michael Selig called this a "historic action," but it is still essentially a tentative opening — a staff advisory that can be revised or withdrawn at any time.
Kalshi said explicitly that its perpetual contracts will not cover agricultural commodities; the product scope is limited to crypto for now.
This reflects the regulator's posture: open one door to test the waters, not swing the gates wide all at once.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.