Kalshi has asked the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to approve two new perpetual futures contracts, extending its push from crypto derivatives into traditional equities and commodities. The submissions, filed Aug. 18 under the CFTC’s voluntary approval process, cover a broad U.S. stock index and copper.
The first proposed product, the US500 Contract, would track the MerQube US Large Cap Index, a broad-based gauge of the 500 largest companies listed and domiciled in the United States. It would be cash settled with no fixed expiration, use periodic funding payments between long and short positions to stay aligned with the index, and carry a notional value equal to the index level multiplied by $1. Kalshi proposed a $25 million position accountability level based on mark-to-market value and said it could impose price bands, order limits, and position controls.
The second filing, the COPPERPERP Contract, would be a perpetual futures contract on copper’s spot price in U.S. dollars per pound, referencing the Pyth Network XCU-USD price feed. Each full contract would represent 1,000 pounds of copper, with a minimum trade of one-thousandth of a contract. A $0.0005 per-pound move would equal a $0.50 change in a full contract’s value. Kalshi proposed continuous trading from 6 p.m. ET Sunday through 5 p.m. ET Friday and set a $5 million position accountability level with a maximum position of 25,000 contracts.
The applications come after the CFTC approved Kalshi’s Bitcoin perpetual futures in late May, a decision that opened the door for those assets to trade in the U.S. for the first time. Kalshi has also rolled out Ether and XRP perpetual contracts since then. The new filings arrive while CME Group is challenging the CFTC in court. In June, CME sued the regulator, arguing that perpetual contracts should be classified as swaps rather than futures under the Dodd-Frank Act. CME contends the CFTC violated the Commodity Exchange Act when it approved the first set of perpetual futures for Kalshi and Coinbase in May. The CFTC has called that lawsuit “frivolous.”
The CFTC has not yet approved the US500 or COPPERPERP contracts. The regulator could authorize them, request changes, or reject them. Kalshi has said listing would occur only after Commission authorization.
