Kalshi Seeks Stock Index And Copper Perps After $1B Bitcoin Debut

Kalshi filed with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to bring crypto-style perpetual futures to a U.S. stock index and copper, extending a structure it first introduced domestically with Bitcoin (BTC).

Key Points:

Kalshi filed on Aug. 18 for perpetual futures tied to a U.S. stock index and copper.

Its Bitcoin perpetual topped $5.5 billion in volume within two weeks of its Jun. 3 launch.

CME Group is challenging the CFTC’s treatment of the contracts as futures rather than swaps.

Kalshi Stock Perps

Kalshi’s Aug. 18 filing seeks to move perpetual futures beyond crypto and into traditional markets, putting the prediction-market operator into more direct competition with established derivatives exchanges. Perpetuals have no expiration date and use periodic funding payments to track the underlying asset.

The CFTC approved Kalshi’s Bitcoin perpetual earlier this year, making it the first such contract allowed on a U.S.-regulated exchange before trading began on Jun. 3.

Chief Executive Tarek Mansour said volume passed $1 billion during its first week and exceeded $5.5 billion within two weeks of the launch. Kalshi later used that approval as a template, filing for gold and silver perpetuals before adding the stock index and copper proposals this week. Cboe Global Markets took a different route, launching Mini-S&P 500 binary options through Interactive Brokers in Jun. rather than adopting a perpetual structure.

Also Read: Crypto Leverage Falls To 2020 Levels As Market Sheds Debt Without 2022-Style Crisis

CME Legal Challenge

CME’s lawsuit could influence whether Kalshi can extend the same model into stocks.

CME argues that the Bitcoin perpetual is a swap, while Kalshi and the CFTC maintain it is a futures contract that simply lacks a fixed expiration date. The stock index filing relies on the same reasoning, pointing to standardized contract sizes, central clearing and margin requirements as features associated with futures markets.

The dispute arrives as perpetual trading shifts from offshore crypto venues toward regulated U.S. exchanges, a change that could reshape competition in derivatives markets.

BitMEX, which introduced the offshore crypto perpetual swap in 2014, announced its closure in Jul. Its operations are scheduled to end Sept. 23, contrasting with Kalshi’s push to move the same basic model into more regulated U.S. markets.

Alexey Bondarev

Alexey Bondarev is the Head of Content at Yellow.com, having reported on crypto for the last 10 years. He specializes in in-depth Research and Learn pieces, with a focus on analytical reporting, industry context, and the bigger forces shaping crypto, from the AI era and security technologies to fintech innovation. He believes that everything digital will imminently overcome everything analogue and is working hard to make that come true.