Kalshi, Coinbase and Payward race for US stock perpetual futures approval

Wall Street’s newest turf war isn’t about who can offer the lowest fees or the flashiest app. It’s about who gets there first with US stock perpetual futures — a crypto-native derivatives product that’s now racing toward traditional equities. Kalshi filed with regulators on Friday to offer perpetual futures tied to individual US stocks, putting itself in direct competition with Coinbase, which submitted a nearly identical proposal the very same day.

Key takeaways

• Kalshi filed a proposed rule change with the SEC and submitted it to the CFTC on Friday to offer perpetual futures on individual US stocks; the CFTC has not yet approved it.
• Coinbase filed a similar proposal on the same day, setting up a head-to-head race for the same regulatory approval.
• Kalshi’s contracts would be treated as security futures and cleared through Kalshi Klear, its CFTC-registered clearinghouse.
• Payward, the parent company of Kraken, filed through Bitnomial Exchange to bring perpetual futures on 10 US equities — including Tesla, Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon — to Kraken users, with plans for 24/5 trading.
• The push comes days after the CLARITY Act failed to clear the US Senate, prompting SEC Chair Paul Atkins to say the agency will “act decisively” with or without new legislation.