Kalshi takes on Coinbase, Robinhood with new plan to offer crypto perpetual futures: The Information
Prediction market platform Kalshi is moving onto Coinbase’s turf by launching crypto perpetual futures, aiming to capture the massive demand for digital asset derivatives within a regulated U.S. framework.
What to know:
- Kalshi plans to launch crypto perpetual futures trading in the United States, expanding beyond its core prediction markets business as competition intensifies.
- The company will start with perpetual futures tied to tokens such as bitcoin, leveraging its CFTC licenses and recent approval to offer margin trading.
- The move highlights growing convergence between prediction markets and crypto exchanges, as platforms like Coinbase, Crypto.com and Gemini vie for the same traders amid softer crypto volumes and rising prediction market activity.
Perpetual futures are a type of derivatives contract that allow traders to bet on the price of an asset without owning it and without a fixed expiration date. Unlike traditional futures, which settle at a set time, perpetuals can be held indefinitely as long as traders maintain sufficient collateral. Prices are kept aligned with the underlying asset through funding payments between long and short positions, making them a core product on many offshore crypto exchanges.
Kalshi’s move would place it in more direct competition with crypto platforms such as Coinbase (COIN), which has been expanding its own derivatives and prediction market offerings. Coinbase does not yet offer true perpetual futures in the U.S., though it has introduced “perpetual-style” futures contracts with long-dated expirations and has signaled interest in bringing more advanced derivatives products onshore. Other exchanges are moving in a similar direction, underscoring a broader push to capture demand that has historically flowed to offshore venues.
