On May 29, 2026, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC” or “Commission”) took a set of coordinated actions establishing a regulatory framework for perpetual contracts in U.S. derivatives markets. The Commission approved the first-ever domestically listed perpetual futures contract and issued a policy statement outlining its supervisory approach to these novel instruments. The Market Participants Division (MPD) separately issued Commission Letter No. 26-17 addressing U.S. customer access to certain foreign-listed perpetual futures. These announcements represent a landmark step toward bringing perpetual contract trading, long dominated by offshore platforms, into the regulated U.S. marketplace and are part of the Commission’s broader efforts to implement the recommendations in the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets report on Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology.
The Commission issued an Order for Approval to KalshiEX, LLC (“Kalshi”), a designated contract market (“DCM”), authorizing the listing of its BTCPERP Contract, a perpetual futures contract that references the spot price of bitcoin, as a futures contract. Kalshi submitted the BTCPERP Contract for Commission review and approval under Commission Regulation 40.3 on May 28, 2026. Following its review, the Commission determined that the contract complies with the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”) and Commission regulations, including the Core Principles applicable to DCMs under Section 5(d) of the CEA. The BTCPERP Contract is a cash-settled instrument referencing the U.S. dollar price of one bitcoin, as measured by the CF Benchmarks Bitcoin Real Time Index, and will trade in units of one ten-thousandth of one bitcoin on a 24/7 basis throughout the lifetime of the contract. In lieu of a fixed expiration date, the contract employs a periodic funding rate mechanism, payments exchanged between long and short position holders based on the difference between the contract’s mark price and the spot reference price, designed to maintain convergence with the underlying asset’s price.
Alongside the approval order, the Commission released a policy statement articulating its views on the listing of perpetual contracts more broadly. The policy statement emphasizes that, given the unique structural characteristics of perpetual contracts, including their indefinite duration and reliance on funding rate mechanisms rather than expiration-based convergence, the Commission believes the case-by-case review process under Commission Regulation 40.3 is appropriate for any perpetual contract referencing asset classes not contemplated by the Kalshi order. This includes, but is not limited to, agricultural products, precious metals, equity securities, and narrow-based security indexes, each of which will raise distinct considerations warranting independent analysis. The Commission noted that perpetual contracts referencing equity securities or narrow-based security indexes would benefit from joint review with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
These actions collectively signal the CFTC’s commitment to fostering responsible innovation while maintaining robust market oversight. The Commission’s approach, approving a specific product while simultaneously establishing a broader supervisory framework, provides regulatory clarity for market participants seeking to develop and list perpetual contracts within the U.S. regulatory perimeter rather than on less regulated offshore venues. Commission Letter No. 26-17 fills an adjacent gap by confirming that Coinbase Financial Markets may treat certain Deribit perpetuals as foreign futures under Commission Regulation 30.1 and granting no-action relief for customer-owned digital commodities and payment stablecoins to be posted as margin through an affiliated foreign broker, subject to substantial customer-protection conditions. That market context is important: perpetuals have become a key segment of global crypto markets, but regulatory ambiguity had pushed much of that activity offshore. The new framework is intended to draw that activity into regulated channels.
