Kalshi Seeks SEC and CFTC Clearance for 58 Equity-Linked Perpetual Security Futures

Meta description: Kalshi filed for 58 equity-linked perpetual security futures, adding stocks, ETFs and ADRs to a widening SEC and CFTC review.

Tags: Kalshi, CFTC, SEC, Coinbase Derivatives, Payward, Security Futures

Market platform: Kalshi

Category: Regulation

Kalshi is seeking regulatory clearance for 58 equity-linked perpetual security futures, according to the SEC’s KalshiEX rulemaking page for SR-KALSHIEX-2026-02 and CFTC product records. The September 18, 2026 filing covers contracts tied to stocks, ETFs, ADRs and related equity securities, placing Kalshi in a broader push to test crypto-style perpetual futures inside US-regulated markets.

What did Kalshi file?

KalshiEX filed a proposed SEC rule change on September 18 to establish listing standards for security futures products. The filing covers 58 perpetual contracts linked to equity securities and equity-related instruments, including common stocks, ETFs, ADRs, REITs and unit investment trust products listed in CFTC records.

Perpetual futures do not have a fixed expiration date. Instead, they use a funding mechanism designed to keep the contract price aligned with the underlying reference asset. That structure is familiar in crypto derivatives markets, but Kalshi’s filing asks regulators to apply it to security futures traded on a US-regulated venue.

The contracts would be cash-settled and cleared through Kalshi Klear, Kalshi’s CFTC-registered derivatives clearing organization, according to the SEC filing. Because the products reference securities or security-like underliers, they sit in the security futures category, which is subject to joint SEC and CFTC oversight.

The CFTC’s product records list the related Kalshi contracts as approval pending. The SEC’s KalshiEX rulemaking page identifies the matter as SR-KALSHIEX-2026-02 and says comments are due 21 days after publication in the Federal Register. That makes the next stage a public rulemaking process, not only an internal agency review.

What contracts are included?

The Kalshi filing is broader than a single-stock futures proposal. CFTC records for the pending set include common-stock references as well as products such as QQQPERP, SPYPERP, BABAPERP and PLDPERP. The records classify those underliers across categories including ETF, UIT, ADR and REIT products.

That distinction matters because the legal hook is not simply whether a contract references a household-name company. The relevant category is security futures, which can include futures on individual securities and narrow-based security indexes. Kalshi’s filing therefore tests whether perpetual structures can be listed across a wider set of equity-linked underliers under the joint SEC-CFTC framework.

Kalshi’s trading schedule would run from 6 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday to 5 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, with a daily maintenance window from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time, according to the SEC filing. The schedule gives the contracts extended weekday access while still preserving a daily break.

How does this compare with Coinbase and Payward?

Kalshi is not alone in trying to bring perpetual futures into US-listed equity markets. Coinbase Derivatives filed a separate September 18, 2026 proposal for a single-stock perpetual futures contract, according to CFTC filing records. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Coinbase’s effort involves about 50 to 60 stocks.

Payward, Kraken’s parent company, is also pursuing US-listed equity perpetual futures through Bitnomial Exchange. Payward’s Q2 2026 materials said its acquisition of Bitnomial closed on May 1, 2026. In a September 18 post on X, Payward said the planned initial contracts would cover 10 equities, including Tesla, Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon, and described the plan as 24/5 trading.

The three efforts differ in structure, venue and disclosed scope, but they share the same regulatory problem: how to fit perpetual futures, a product design associated with crypto markets, into the existing US framework for listed derivatives on securities. For Kalshi, the question runs through both its SEC rule filing and the CFTC product-review process.

Is Kalshi already active in perpetual futures?

Yes. Kalshi has already expanded beyond binary event contracts into perpetual futures tied to crypto and commodities. CFTC product records show Kalshi’s Bitcoin perpetual contract was approved in May 2026. Kalshi also lists perpetual contracts tied to Ether, Solana and XRP.

For metals, CFTC product records show Kalshi’s GOLDPERP and SILVERPERP contracts were approved on September 3, 2026 and certified on September 8. Kalshi announced the launch of gold and silver perpetuals on September 10. The equity-linked filing extends that architecture into security futures, where the legal pathway is more complex because SEC and CFTC rules both apply.

Kalshi Klear is central to that expansion. The clearinghouse supports Kalshi’s listed derivatives business, and the proposed equity-linked perpetuals would rely on that infrastructure if regulators allow the contracts to list. The review therefore reaches both product design and the regulatory fit of a prediction-market operator moving deeper into exchange-traded derivatives.

Why does the security futures label matter?

Security futures are futures contracts on individual securities or narrow-based security indexes. In the US, they are regulated jointly by the SEC and CFTC under the framework created after the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. That dual-agency structure separates them from broad-based equity-index futures, which generally fall under the CFTC’s futures-market jurisdiction.

The category has a long history but limited commercial traction. OneChicago, the best-known US single-stock futures exchange, operated for nearly two decades before closing in 2020. CME Group moved back into the space in 2026, launching 55 standard and 22 Micro single-stock futures on July 27, according to CME’s launch materials.

The new proposals differ from older single-stock futures in product design and distribution. Perpetual futures have no set expiration and use periodic funding payments between long and short positions. US regulators are now being asked to evaluate whether that structure can be applied to equity-linked contracts on registered venues, with exchange rules, margining and clearing arrangements in place.

What is the regulatory backdrop?

The filings arrived during a broader fight over how US agencies should oversee crypto-linked market structure. On September 15, 2026, the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act, a crypto-market-structure bill, according to the Senate’s cloture vote record. The vote left existing SEC and CFTC authorities in place rather than creating a new statutory framework for digital-asset markets.

SEC Chair Paul Atkins said in a September 14, 2026 speech that the administration would act with or without the CLARITY Act. For Kalshi, Coinbase and Payward, the immediate question is narrower: whether their proposed equity-linked perpetuals satisfy the listing, disclosure, margining and market-surveillance requirements that apply to security futures.

That review will not turn only on whether perpetual futures are popular in offshore crypto markets. The agencies must evaluate how the contracts reference underlying securities, how funding rates are calculated, how positions are margined, how manipulation risks are monitored and how the products fit within the statutory limits on security futures trading.

What happens next?

The next milestone for Kalshi is SEC publication of SR-KALSHIEX-2026-02 and the related comment period, with comments due 21 days after the Federal Register notice appears. CFTC product records continue to list the related Kalshi contracts as pending. Coinbase Derivatives and Payward’s Bitnomial effort are moving through their own regulatory channels in parallel.

No product in the current wave is live for trading. If the SEC and CFTC allow the contracts to list, Kalshi would add equity-linked perpetuals to a derivatives lineup that already includes event contracts, crypto perpetuals and commodity perpetuals. If either agency objects or seeks revisions, the launch path could move beyond the initial comment period into a longer review of how perpetual futures fit inside the US security-futures framework.