MW One of the hottest crypto products in the world is finally coming to the U.S
By Joseph Adinolfi
Kalshi and Coinbase have received permission from the CFTC to bring perpetual futures to U.S.-based investors
Kalshi and Coinbase will soon offer U.S.-based investors perpetual futures contracts tied to cryptocurrencies.
A popular financial derivative that allows speculators to bet on prices for everything from obscure meme coins to shares of companies that haven't gone public yet is finally gaining a foothold in the U.S.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced Friday that it has given prediction-market operator Kalshi permission to launch a perpetual futures contract tied to bitcoin (BTCUSD).
It marks the first time that a perpetual futures product has received the agency's blessing in the U.S. Kalshi said in a separate statement that it would seek approval for similar contracts tied to more than a dozen cryptocurrencies.
"This marks a big next chapter in our journey as a company," a Kalshi representative told MarketWatch during a phone interview on Friday. "This really makes us like a next-generation derivatives exchange."
But that wasn't the only big news in the space on Friday. The CFTC also granted crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) permission to offer its U.S.-based clients access to cryptocurrency options and perpetual futures contracts trading on Deribit, an offshore derivatives exchange owned by Coinbase. Soon, traders will be able to access Deribit's global market for cryptocurrency derivatives via the Coinbase app.
A representative for Coinbase did not provide an exact timeline for when all U.S. customers would have access to these products. However, institutional clients can start the onboarding process immediately, they said.
A fast-growing financial product
Yale economist Robert Shiller is widely credited with developing much of the theory behind perpetual futures contracts back in the 1990s. But the idea wasn't implemented until the 2010s, after the birth of the cryptocurrency market.
Industry veterans told MarketWatch that early crypto-derivatives exchange BitMEX refined the perpetual future into its current form, a product which it initially launched in 2016.
Since then, perpetuals have been steadily gaining popularity offshore. Initially, perpetuals were linked to cryptocurrency tokens. But some offshore decentralized platforms, most notably Hyperliquid $(PURR)$, have started offering perpetuals tied to real-world assets like oil (CL00) and gold (GC00). Even pre-IPO contracts tied to SpaceX $(SPCX)$ are trading on one market.
See: Investors are flocking to an offshore crypto platform for an early shot at trading the SpaceX IPO
Also: The year's hottest crypto play is helping investors bet on the future of trading
When the Iran war first broke out on Feb. 28, traders rushed to trade perpetuals tied to crude oil over that weekend, as traditional financial markets were closed.
These products have been mostly off-limits to investors based in the U.S. for regulatory reasons - although some traders have managed to trade them using a virtual private network, or VPN, which can mask a user's location. This practice has led to several CFTC lawsuits against some of these offshore platforms.
Coinbase already offers what it calls "perpetual-style" futures contracts to U.S. investors. But the product lacks a few of the key attributes that have made perpetual futures so popular around the world. One key difference: Perpetual futures offer round-the-clock trading seven days a week and settlement at regular intervals.
"The primary difference is that perpetual futures are the crypto-native contract," said one Coinbase employee who agreed to speak with MarketWatch about the company's plans on background.
So far, it looks like perpetuals in the U.S. will be limited to cryptocurrencies. Kalshi said in its press release that it had no plans to launch perpetual futures tied to agricultural products.
One key difference between the Kalshi and Coinbase offerings: Kalshi is building a new market for perpetual futures from the ground up; Coinbase, meanwhile, will offer U.S. investors the ability to tap into Deribit's global liquidity. Deribit, which is a regulated crypto-derivatives exchange in Dubai, already sees billions of dollars a day in volume.
Gordon Gottsegen contributed.
-Joseph Adinolfi
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 29, 2026 16:18 ET (20:18 GMT)
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