BREAKING: CFTC Approves Kalshi S&P 500 Stock Index Perpetual Futures
Highlights
- Kalshi receives the CFTC’s approval to offer S&P 500 stock index perpetual futures.
- The prediction market expands beyond crypto and metal perp futures offerings.
- The approval puts Kalshi in direct competition with traditional derivatives exchanges such as CME.
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) greenlights Kalshi prediction market to launch S&P 500 stock index perpetual futures. The approval puts the prediction market into direct competition with traditional derivatives exchanges, such as CME Group and Cboe Global Markets.
Kalshi Gains CFTC Approval to Offer S&P 500 Perpetual Futures
Kalshi has received the CFTC’s approval to offer stock index perpetual futures, according to the regulator. The prediction market will begin by offering S&P 500 perpetual futures on the platform, extending beyond crypto and metal perps.
Notably, Kalshi filed for a US500PERP contract in August, seeking CFTC’s review and approval to offer stock index perpetual futures. The product will track MerQube US Large Cap Index and let traders take long or short exposure to the S&P 500 through a cash-settled contract with no expiration date.
Similar to existing crypto perpetuals, the contract is designed to stay anchored to a reference price through periodic funding payments rather than converge to a single settlement date.
Kalshi, a CFTC-registered designated contract market, expanded beyond event contracts into perpetual futures this year. The prediction market platform already offers 19 crypto perps, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP. As CoinGape reported recently, Kalshi launched gold and silver perps.
Direct Competition with Traditional Futures Exchanges
S&P 500 index perpetual futures will put Kalshi in direct competition with futures listed on established exchanges such as CME and Cboe. CME had already sued the CFTC over the regulator’s decision to let Kalshi and Coinbase list crypto perpetuals. It claimed Bitcoin perpetual futures are swaps, not futures.
The platform continued to expand its crypto perpetual offering, launching Uniswap (UNI) perps last week. Kalshi also filed with the CFTC to launch individual stock perps. The prediction market’s expansion into traditional markets via perpetual futures has raised challenges and scrutiny.
Meanwhile, Kalshi filed with the CFTC to offer margin trading on event contracts to attract more institutional liquidity. This will apply to contracts that meet certain eligibility criteria, including contracts related to “economic, financial, political, commercial, and other objectively verifiable events.
To understand how Kalshi fits into the broader compliant landscape in America, traders can compare the best regulated prediction markets in US to evaluate fee structures, liquidity, and contract clearing.
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