Kalshi can start trading perpetual futures on around 50 US stocks and ETFs from today, the first stock perps to go live on a regulated American venue. The lineup runs from mega caps like Nvidia, Apple and Tesla to newly listed SpaceX, plus the SPY and QQQ index trackers. A perpetual future works like a regular future but never expires. Instead of settling on a fixed date, the contract uses a daily funding payment to keep its price tethered to the underlying stock.
The products were not voted on by the CFTC. Under Regulation 40.3, exchanges can submit new products to the agency for review. If the CFTC does not object within 45 days the product is deemed approved by default. Kalshi filed on September 18 and the clock ran out on November 2. Chairman Michael Selig issued a statement the following day welcoming the milestone and framing it as bringing offshore products into a regulated setting.
Coinbase Derivatives, Bitnomial and Crypto.com’s Nadex filed similar equity perps around the same time and remain pending, making Kalshi the sole first mover for now.
However, the approval drew immediate pushback. SIFMA, the trade group representing Wall Street’s banks and broker dealers, filed a letter on November 2 asking the SEC and CFTC to block the products and send the filings through the SEC’s standard review process, which includes public comment. Cboe, CME Group and Nasdaq sent similar letters in October.
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