Kalshi is preparing to seek approval from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission for a perpetual futures contract tied to West Texas Intermediate crude oil, according to reports from Reuters and Bloomberg. The filing could be submitted as early as next week.
If approved, the product would become the first regulated U.S. oil perpetual, importing a structure widely used in crypto derivatives into a major traditional commodity market. The contract would have no fixed expiration date and would trade 24 hours a day from Monday through Friday, rather than operating continuously throughout the week.
The proposal arrives as oil markets face elevated volatility. WTI recently climbed above $90 per barrel amid renewed U.S.-Iran tensions and concerns over disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz. Traditional WTI futures require traders to close, settle or roll positions at expiration. A perpetual would remove that recurring rollover while margin requirements are met.
Kalshi has not yet published the contract specifications, including its benchmark, funding mechanism, margin framework, liquidation rules or settlement method. No application appeared in the CFTC’s public product filing database as of Sept. 3, so key details remain unconfirmed. The exchange already offers a CFTC-approved Bitcoin perpetual that began trading in June 2026 after approval on May 29 under Commission Regulation 40.3.
CFTC Chair Michael Selig has defended the regulator’s treatment of perpetual futures, saying existing U.S. law does not require every futures contract to have a predetermined expiration date. He also rejected claims that regulated U.S. perpetuals would automatically offer the extreme leverage seen on some offshore platforms, noting they remain subject to domestic leverage and risk controls.
For oil, a successful perpetual must track its reference market accurately despite physical delivery considerations, regional pricing differences, storage constraints and an established futures term structure. The funding or price-adjustment formula will be central to understanding how the contract reflects contango or backwardation without relying on a single delivery month. CME Group’s benchmark WTI contract represents 1,000 barrels and uses physical delivery at Cushing, Oklahoma.
The filing also enters a broader legal debate. CME CEO Terry Duffy has argued that products without expiration dates should fall under the swaps framework created by the Dodd-Frank Act, and CME has threatened legal action over the CFTC’s approval of crypto perpetual contracts. Meanwhile, offshore crypto exchanges including ICE and OKX have already introduced Brent and WTI perpetual futures, and Hyperliquid’s policy arm has urged the CFTC to examine perpetual futures as a hedging instrument for commodities.
The next confirmed milestone will be Kalshi’s public submission to the CFTC, which should reveal contract mechanics, reference prices, position limits and safeguards against manipulation. Approval is not guaranteed.
