Kalshi applies to launch US stock index perpetual futures, further expanding into the traditional exchange market.

Prediction market platform Kalshi has filed regulatory documents with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to launch stock index-linked perpetual futures, further expanding its operations from prediction markets to traditional financial derivatives. The documents show that Kalshi’s planned "US500" perpetual futures will track the MerQube U.S. Large Cap Index, which covers 500 large companies listed in the U.S. Perpetual futures have no expiration date, do not require traders to hold the underlying asset, and the contracts continuously track the underlying price via a funding rate mechanism. At the end of May this year, Kalshi received approval to launch crypto perpetual futures, which it officially rolled out in June. The company subsequently applied to launch precious metal perpetual futures including gold and silver, and is now submitting additional applications for copper and stock index perpetual futures. Kalshi noted that global perpetual futures trading volume exceeded $90 trillion in 2025, and its own products surpassed $1 billion in notional volume within a week of launch. Kalshi’s foray into perpetual futures sparked concerns among traditional exchanges. Shares of CME Group and Cboe Global Markets came under pressure earlier due to the U.S. approval of domestic perpetual futures, with CME even filing a lawsuit with a federal court over the relevant regulatory approval. As of press time, CME was up approximately 1.26%, while Cboe rose roughly 0.12%.