Kalshi Perps Hit $1B in a Week; Took 40 Months to Do the Same With Event Contracts ⏱️

Kalshi's newly launched perpetual futures crossed $1 billion in trading volume less than a week after going live, CEO Tarek Mansour told CNBC, marking a striking contrast with the company's original prediction market business, which needed 40 months to reach the same threshold. The Bitcoin perpetual (BTCPERP) launched on June 3, generating more than $100 million in volume in its first 24 hours, according to Kalshi. All volumes are notional and include leverage, the company noted, though the comparison to its earlier milestone still stands.

The launch followed CFTC approval granted to Kalshi and Coinbase on May 29, making them the first two U.S.-regulated venues cleared to offer perpetual futures. Thirteen CFTC-approved contracts are live so far, with Solana, XRP, and Dogecoin contracts pending regulatory sign-off. Kalshi's waitlist surpassed 1 million users before the product went live, and the company has called perps the fastest-growing product in its history.

Perpetual futures, or perps, are contracts with no expiration date that allow traders to speculate on asset prices without holding the underlying asset. Contracts track price continuously, with periodic funding payments between long and short holders keeping prices aligned with the market. The asset class generates $90 trillion in annual global volume, making it the largest segment of crypto derivatives trading.

Coinbase received its approval through an affiliate linked to Deribit, the offshore options platform Coinbase acquired for $2.9 billion. The two U.S.-regulated entrants now face the same benchmark: a $90 trillion global perp market that, until late May, was accessible to American traders only through offshore venues such as Binance and Bybit. Until six days ago, U.S. traders were locked out of that market.