Kalshi asks the CFTC to put crypto's perpetual futures on US stocks and copper

On August 18, Kalshi filed two proposals with the CFTC to list perpetual futures on a major US stock index and on copper ^[1]. If the agency clears them, the contract type that Cornell University researchers estimate accounts for 93% of all crypto derivatives trading ^[7] stops being a crypto artefact and becomes a listed product in regulated traditional markets.

The mechanics are the point. A perpetual has no expiry, so a leveraged position can be held indefinitely without rolling, and periodic funding payments keep the contract price tethered to the underlying ^[2]. That design is not a crypto invention: the economist Robert Shiller proposed a perpetual futures structure in 1993, writing that "a perpetual futures contract is proposed that would cash settle every day" ^[8][9]. Crypto is simply where it found volume ^[10].

The specifics of the filings are more interesting than the headline. The US500 contract would track the MerQube US Large Cap Index, the 500 largest US-listed companies weighted by float-adjusted market cap ^[11]. COPPERPERP would reference the current price of copper in dollars per pound using the Pyth Network's XCU/USD feed ^[3]. So a CFTC-regulated metals contract would settle off a crypto-native oracle feed, which is the sort of detail that consumes review time. Both filings sit under Regulation 40.3, meaning Kalshi cannot launch until the CFTC affirmatively approves ^[4].

There is a precedent path here. On May 29 the CFTC greenlit Kalshi's BTCPERP and said other perpetual contracts would be reviewed under Regulation 40.3 ^[5]. Bitcoin perps launched in early June and were followed by Ether, XRP and others ^[12]; Cryptopolitan reports Kalshi now offers perpetuals across 13 cryptocurrencies ^[13]. The equity and copper filings landed 81 days after that first approval ^[18], which is a fast escalation from one crypto contract to an asset class where retail leverage carries a different political weight.

Size argues for restraint. Cryptopolitan reports Kalshi's daily open interest hit an all-time high of $17.98 million ^[14]. That is a rounding error next to the venues Kalshi would be competing with, and it means the filings are a bet on structure rather than a defence of an existing franchise. Coinbase Institutional, in its 2026 Crypto Market Outlook, argued that "equity perps could become the preferred choice for a new generation of retail traders," citing constant accessibility and efficient use of capital, and claiming perps are becoming components of lending, collateral and hedging systems rather than just leverage wrappers ^[15][16][17]. That is a sell-side thesis, not a finding.

What to watch: whether the CFTC treats a 40.3 filing on equities the way it treated one on Bitcoin, and how it handles a settlement price sourced from Pyth. Watch also the litigation overhang. Cryptopolitan notes CME's legal challenge could affect Kalshi's expansion ^[6]. And watch open interest, because if a regulated equity perp exists and the book stays in the tens of millions, the migration thesis is answered by indifference rather than by regulators.