Kalshi Perps Hit $1B in a Week — Now They Want to Know Where You Work 📋

Kalshi's perpetual futures product has crossed $1 billion in trading volume within a week of launch, according to John Wang, the platform's Head of Crypto. "Took 1 week for Kalshi Perps to get to $1B, and we haven't even launched publicly yet. Prediction markets took 3.5 years to get to $1B," Wang said. The CFTC-regulated prediction market received approval in late May to offer perps, making it the first regulated venue in the U.S. where traders can speculate on asset prices without holding the underlying asset. Approximately 1 million users are on the waitlist for the product, the firm said.

The milestone comes as Kalshi prepares to roll out employment-data requirements for traders accessing perps. Robert J. Denault, Head of Enforcement at Kalshi, said, "Market integrity is a more than just a lofty goal for us. It's the reason we collect identification info from every trader, why we surveil our markets 24/7, and why we continue to expand our capabilities to prevent, detect, and punish misconduct." The move follows heightened scrutiny over insider trading and sanctioned-entity access across prediction markets.

Kalshi's perps lineup currently includes only $BTC and $LINK, with 12 additional contracts in the pipeline. By contrast, decentralized platform Hyperliquid [$HYPE] offers a broader range of crypto pairs and commodities through its HIP-3 framework, and does not impose know-your-customer checks comparable to Kalshi's.

The broader perpetual futures sector has cooled significantly, with industry-wide volumes falling to roughly $174 billion from a peak of $1.2 trillion recorded in October 2024.