Kalshi is expanding its lineup of US-regulated crypto perpetual futures, adding US dollar-settled contracts tied to assets like Cardano and Binance Coin. These products, which have no fixed expiry date, have been staples on offshore venues for years, but remain an exception in the regulated US market. Kalshi’s platform is regulated by the CFTC, which approved its Bitcoin perpetual futures contract on May 29. The trades settle in US dollars and use CF Benchmarks indices for reference pricing, putting the contracts inside the traditional American futures market framework, at least for now.
But this market structure is being defined in real time. In June, CME Group filed suit, arguing the CFTC should not have labeled Kalshi’s perpetuals as futures, which have one rule set, rather than as swaps, which are more tightly regulated. The CFTC filed a motion to dismiss on September 2. If the court throws the case out on procedural grounds, Kalshi’s contracts likely keep trading, but the bigger question, whether perpetuals should be classified as futures or swaps, could remain unsettled. The next milestone is CME’s opposition brief, due October 2. For now, Kalshi’s moves are less about new listings and more about the ongoing test of just how far regulated US crypto derivatives can stretch before legal definitions catch up.