Kalshi has launched regulated perpetual futures on individual US stocks, becoming the first company in America to offer a product that has until now lived almost entirely on offshore crypto exchanges.
The contracts, announced on 5 November, cover more than 50 companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, including McDonald’s, Palantir, SpaceX, Meta, Nvidia and Tesla. They let traders bet on a share price rising or falling without owning the stock, with no expiry date and no rollover fees. Each contract represents 0.02 of a share, funding payments are exchanged daily at 4pm ET, and leverage reaches about 4.9 times on some names — levels Kalshi says are approved by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and far lower than offshore equivalents.
Demand was already evident before the launch was public. Co-founder Luana Lopes Lara said on the morning of 5 November that more than $300 million of volume had traded during a quiet rollout. Kalshi says single-stock perpetuals already transact more than $4.5 trillion a year globally, almost all of it offshore.
The launch is the latest step in Kalshi’s rapid expansion beyond the prediction markets that made its name. Founded in 2018, the exchange lets users trade on election results, economic data and other events. It raised $1 billion last month at a $40 billion valuation, nearly double the $22 billion it was valued at in May, and says its non-sports business now generates more than $1 billion in annualised revenue. It launched perpetual futures on crypto in May and on gold and silver in September.
But the new product arrived with a legal fight already under way. Kalshi, Coinbase Derivatives and Bitnomial all filed for single-stock perpetuals on 18 September. The CFTC’s 45-day review window closed on 2 November without an objection, so the filings were deemed approved. On 3 November, CFTC chairman Michael S. Selig said the products were deemed approved as security futures under Regulation 40.3.
The same day, the Capital Markets Alliance — a trade group whose members include Cboe and Citadel Securities — sued the CFTC in Manhattan, arguing the contracts are security-based swaps that fall under the Securities and Exchange Commission, not security futures. US District Judge Valerie Caproni declined to block the launch immediately, but found the challengers were likely to succeed in arguing the CFTC lacked authority. The regulator was ordered to defend its position by 6 November, with the alliance’s reply due on 10 November.
“Single stock perps are good for consumers: simple and easy to trade,” Kalshi co-founder and chief executive Tarek Mansour said. “We’re taking a product that’s in high demand and bringing it to US traders in a safe and regulated way.”
Note on sourcing: the trading volume and demand figures are Kalshi’s own, and have not been independently verified. The legal status of the contracts is contested: the CFTC’s approval was automatic after its review window lapsed, and a federal judge has signalled the challengers may ultimately prevail.
Sources: Traders Magazine — “Kalshi Brings Single Stock Perpetual Futures to the U.S.” (Kalshi announcement) https://www.tradersmagazine.com/xtra/kalshi-brings-single-stock-perpetual-futures-to-the-u-s/ ; Crypto Briefing — “Kalshi launches single-stock perps, logging over $300 million in early trading” https://cryptobriefing.com/kalshi-launches-single-stock-perps/ ; Catenaa — “Stock Perpetual Futures Spark Suit Against CFTC” https://catenaa.com/markets/regulations/stock-perpetual-futures-cftc-lawsuit/ ; KuCoin News — “Kalshi Launches Single-Stock Perpetual Futures for AAPL, AMZN, and AMD” https://www.kucoin.com/news/flash/kalshi-launches-single-stock-perpetual-futures-for-aapl-amzn-and-amd
