Kalshi has filed with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for permission to extend its rapidly growing perpetual futures business beyond cryptocurrency, proposing contracts tied to a large-cap U.S. stock index and copper.

If approved, the products would carry one of crypto trading's most distinctive instruments deeper into traditional financial markets. Perpetual futures have no fixed expiration date and allow traders to take leveraged long or short positions, giving investors a way to speculate on price movements without directly owning the underlying asset. First popularized by crypto exchange BitMEX in 2016, the contracts have become one of the most heavily traded products in digital-asset markets, though U.S. traders have largely accessed them through offshore platforms rather than CFTC-regulated venues.

The filing also extends Kalshi well beyond its origins. The company operates as a CFTC-regulated exchange and built its business on event contracts that let users trade on outcomes such as elections and economic data, markets that drew heavy trading during the 2024 U.S. election cycle, before turning to perpetuals.

The proposed contracts would track the MerQube US Large Cap Index, a benchmark administered by index provider MerQube, and copper. The filing arrives less than three months after the regulator approved Kalshi's Bitcoin perpetual futures contract.

Expanding Beyond Crypto

Kalshi's Bitcoin perpetual, approved in May, was the first such contract cleared by the CFTC for the company. The regulator said its approval applied specifically to the Bitcoin product and noted that other perpetual contracts could require separate review.

That decision opened a potential path for Kalshi to bring the structure to additional asset classes, and the latest filing indicates the company is moving quickly to test that boundary.

Perpetual futures can offer traders greater flexibility than traditional futures because positions do not need to be rolled over when contracts expire. They can also support leveraged trading and two-way positioning, allowing traders to benefit from either rising or falling prices. Those same features, however, can magnify losses as well as gains.

A Challenge to Traditional Exchanges

Kalshi's expansion could increase competition with established derivatives venues, which have traditionally offered fixed-expiration futures and options on stocks, indexes and commodities. Both target markets are anchored by incumbents: U.S. stock-index futures trade primarily on CME Group's exchanges, while benchmark copper futures change hands on CME's COMEX unit and the London Metal Exchange.

The strategy also comes amid a broader regulatory debate over whether perpetual contracts should receive futures treatment or face rules associated with swaps. That dispute has intensified as U.S. regulators and major exchanges assess how crypto-style derivatives fit within existing market structures.

For Kalshi, the stock-index and copper filings represent a significant test of whether the perpetual model can move from crypto markets into mainstream finance. If approved, the products could give U.S. traders another regulated route to leveraged exposure across major markets. Because the CFTC has said other perpetual contracts could require separate review, the filings will also show how the agency evaluates the structure when applied to non-crypto assets.