Kalshi seeks to launch perpetual futures tied to U.S. stock indexes

Kalshi is seeking to launch perpetual futures tied to U.S. stock indexes, CNBC reported. On Aug. 18, Kalshi filed documents with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission requesting approval for the products. Unlike standard futures, perpetual futures have no expiration date and let traders bet on price moves without directly holding the underlying asset. The contracts are designed to track the underlying price through funding fees. Kalshi’s proposed US500 perpetual futures would use the MerQube U.S. Large Cap Index, which tracks 500 large-cap U.S.-listed stocks, as the underlying index. Kalshi also applied the same day for regulatory approval for perpetual futures linked to copper, an industrial metal. In July, the company also moved to launch products tied to precious metals such as gold and silver. Kalshi began expanding beyond prediction markets into the broader derivatives market after receiving regulatory approval for cryptocurrency-linked perpetual futures in late May.