KALSHI ASKED THE SEC FOR PERPETUAL FUTURES ON STOCKS — ITS PRECEDENT IS A BITCOIN PERP THAT CME CALLS A SWAP IN COURT — TWO TRADE SIZES MADE UP 54% OF WHAT COINDESK SAMPLED

Three U.S. exchanges filed with the SEC on September 18 to list perpetual futures on single stocks: Coinbase Derivatives, Bitnomial and KalshiEX. The notices went up for public inspection on September 22 and publish in the Federal Register on September 23. The contracts never expire, settle in cash and give no ownership of the stock. To start, an underlying needs a market value of at least $100 billion and at least $450 million a day in trading.

Only Kalshi’s filing brings bitcoin into it. “The CFTC has already approved Kalshi’s listing of perpetual contracts referencing Bitcoin (the ‘BTCPERP Contracts’) as commodity futures contracts.” That CFTC order is dated May 29, 2026. Kalshi’s argument is that the stock version is the same animal: “Like the BTCPERP Contracts, Perpetual SFPs will exhibit the ‘key characteristics of futures contracts.’”

The filing also names the fight. CME is suing the CFTC in federal court in Washington, and in Kalshi’s own summary, “CME argues that perpetual contracts are not futures contracts because they lack a final settlement date.” CME’s word for them is swaps. If a court agrees, the precedent under the stock plan is gone.

Then look at the market held up as proof. CoinDesk sampled Kalshi’s bitcoin perp trades and found recurring $2,500 and $5,000 sizes made up 54% of the sampled volume. On the ether perp, one size near $5,499 made up 57% from September 17 to 20. A market-maker rebate took effect September 16, cutting their fee to 0.003% and paying a rebate of the same size. Kalshi’s crypto head disputed the reporting but did not say who placed the repeating trades. Under four months old, in court, with volume nobody has explained: that is the bitcoin product carrying the case for stocks. At the time of this writing, bitcoin was $86,190.