Kalshi is getting ready to launch crypto perpetual futures on April 27, taking its platform deeper into one of the busiest corners of crypto trading.
A report from The Information said the launch is expected in the coming weeks. Normally, on Kalshi, users bet on outcomes in sports, politics, and other real-world events. The exchange already lets customers place trades tied to where crypto prices may go through standard event contracts, and that category has been growing fast.
Kalshi enters perps as crypto trading grows fast on prediction markets
The new product matters because perpetual futures, or perps, are derivatives with no expiration date, so a trader can stay in the trade as long as there is enough money in the account to support it.
These contracts also come with built-in leverage, which means users can take on bigger exposure with less capital, and also that they can lose money faster.
The chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the U.S. regulator that oversees prediction markets, said recently that he wants these products brought under the agency’s watch soon.
Perps had become a favorite tool in the early days of crypto because traders wanted exposure that traditional finance did not really offer them. As of press time, CoinGecko said the top centralized crypto exchanges recorded $86.2 trillion in yearly perps volume last year, a 47% surge from 2024.
And just last month, Kalshi secured a license that lets it offer margin trading. Earlier today, Cryptopolitan reported that Anthony Pompliano’s ProCap Financial (NASDAQ: BRR) said Tuesday that it is partnering with Kalshi to bring real-time event contract data into its AI research product, ProCap Insights. ProCap said it is the first time Kalshi has supplied data to a financial research firm with paying subscribers.
Polymarket expands too, as Kalshi adds commodities and fresh trading volume
Kalshi’s rival Polymarket said Tuesday that it is also expanding into perpetual futures trading. Polymarket did not say whether its own new product will include crypto perpetual futures, but the company has always leaned heavily into crypto. It runs on the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains, and its trades are mostly denominated in the stablecoin USDC. Crypto traders were a major reason Polymarket exploded in 2024.
At the same time, Kalshi is opening up more markets outside politics and sports. In a Wednesday statement, the company said its new commodities hub tied to major physical markets is a “huge expansion of the breadth of commodities listed on the platform.”
The new lineup includes contracts tied to soybeans, wheat, sugar, copper, nickel, and lithium. Those will sit next to existing markets for oil, gold, and silver. Kalshi said the idea is to give users access to markets that used to be capital-heavy and mostly kept in institutional hands.
Its current contracts are already pulling in money. The most active Kalshi contract tied to oil and gas tracks where the price of a barrel will finish on Friday. That market alone has brought in about $1.3 million in trading volume so far this week.
