Kalshi, a prediction market platform, announced that its newly launched perpetual futures contracts, known as 'perps,' have crossed $1 billion in trading volume within just one week of their debut. The company reported that trading on these contracts began on Wednesday, and the platform saw more than $100 million in volume within the first 24 hours alone [1].
Perpetual futures are a type of futures contract with no expiration date, allowing traders to speculate on asset prices without owning the underlying asset. These contracts track the price of an asset continuously, with funding payments ensuring the contract price remains aligned with the market [1]. According to Bank of America, the global annual volume for this asset class is over $90 trillion, but prior to Kalshi's launch, such contracts were not available for trading in the U.S. [1].
Kalshi received regulatory approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on May 29, making it the first company in the U.S. to offer perpetual futures contracts. On the same day, Coinbase also received approval to offer U.S. traders access to global perpetual contracts through an affiliate [1].
The launch of perps on Kalshi has been met with significant domestic demand, as evidenced by a waitlist that at one point exceeded 1 million people. The company described perps as the fastest growing product in its history, noting that it took 40 months to reach $1 billion in trading volume across its event contracts, whereas perps achieved this milestone in just one week. This marks the company's largest product launch since the introduction of its prediction markets [1].
CONCLUSION
Kalshi's rapid achievement of $1 billion in trading volume for its perpetual futures highlights strong pent-up demand in the U.S. market. The company's regulatory approval and swift user adoption signal a significant shift in the accessibility of this asset class for American traders.