Meta description: Kalshi self-certified WTIFUTURE with the CFTC, a ten-year cash-settled WTI crude future tied to NYMEX prices after CME withdrew a 24/7 oil plan.

Tags: Kalshi, CFTC, CME Group, NYMEX, WTI crude, energy futures

Market platform: Kalshi

Category: Regulation

KalshiEX LLC self-certified a new WTI crude oil futures contract with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on October 7, 2026, under CFTC Regulation 40.2(a). The CFTC product record lists WTIFUTURE as certified, not pending approval, and Kalshi’s filing says the contract was intended to list after close of business on October 7.

The filing is narrower, and legally different, from a no-expiration crude perpetual. Kalshi’s submission describes WTIFUTURE as a cash-settled future with a single fixed expiration ten years after initial listing, a daily funding mechanism and no physical delivery. The filing states: “The Contract is not a perpetual contract.”

What did Kalshi actually file with the CFTC?

Kalshi filed WTIFUTURE as a self-certified futures contract, using the ordinary Regulation 40.2(a) process for designated contract markets. The public CFTC filing page for product No. 65002 lists the organization as KEX, the product name as WTIFUTURE, the type as Future, the status as Certified, the date as October 7, 2026, and the subcategory as Crude Oil.

The contract references West Texas Intermediate light sweet crude oil through the prices of the NYMEX Light Sweet Crude Oil futures contract. Kalshi’s terms say the underlying is a constant one-month forward maturity, computed and published by Pyth Network as the Pyth Constant 1M WTI index from the two NYMEX delivery months that bracket that maturity.

The contract does not settle by delivery of crude at Cushing or any other delivery point. Kalshi’s filing says all payment obligations settle in cash, and no member acquires or incurs a right or obligation to make or take delivery of crude oil by holding the contract.

The trading unit is 100 barrels. For position-limit and accountability purposes, Kalshi says ten WTIFUTURE contracts are equivalent in size to one NYMEX reference contract, with positions attributed to the two referenced NYMEX delivery months in proportion to their index weights.

Is WTIFUTURE a perpetual contract?

No. Kalshi’s filing uses a funding mechanism associated with perpetual-style products, but the filed contract has a fixed ten-year expiration and final cash settlement. That distinction matters because the CFTC has been separately examining perpetual contracts referencing physically delivered or storable energy commodities.

Kalshi framed the product as a long-dated future that allows a participant to hold WTI-linked exposure for up to ten years without rolling from one expiration to the next. The funding mechanism is designed to keep the contract price tethered to its underlying reference, with transfers between long and short holders based on the difference between WTIFUTURE traded prices and the underlying price index.

The filing says funding is calculated across the trading session of the NYMEX reference contract and denominated in dollars per barrel. It also says the mechanism includes a one-tick deadband and a $1.00-per-barrel cap on any single day’s transfer.

That does not make the product expiration-free. In Kalshi’s own explanation, the daily funding adjustment supplements expiration-based convergence rather than replacing it.

How does the trading schedule differ from CME’s 24/7 oil proposal?

WTIFUTURE does not trade 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Kalshi’s filing says the contract trades from 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday through 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, with a daily one-hour maintenance window from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time. It also follows the NYMEX reference contract’s holiday and early-close calendar.

That schedule is central to the regulatory comparison with CME. On July 9, 2026, the CFTC said it would stay CME’s self-certified contract that would have allowed 24/7 trading in crude oil futures. The agency said CME had self-certified the product on July 8 while a public comment process was still open on whether round-the-clock futures trading in crude oil was consistent with the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations.

CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig said in the July 9 release that the agency was examining whether 24/7 futures trading across asset classes was consistent with statutory core principles. The Commission also noted that exchanges can either self-certify products under Regulation 40.2 or seek Commission review and approval under Regulation 40.3.

Kalshi did not use the Regulation 40.3 approval route for WTIFUTURE. It self-certified the contract under Regulation 40.2(a), and the CFTC record lists the product as certified.

Why did the CFTC focus on energy market structure?

The CFTC’s June 2026 request for comment addressed two related issues: extending standard futures contracts to 24/7 trading, and listing perpetual contracts that reference physically delivered or storable energy commodities such as crude oil. In a July 28 Federal Register notice extending the comment period to August 26, the Commission said it was seeking comment on reference-price reliability, market surveillance, operational readiness, position limits, margin, clearing, settlement, customer protection and effects on physical markets.

The same notice specifically asked whether 24/7 trading in a smaller oil contract could create incentives for participants to build positions before the benchmark market closes for the weekend, trade over the weekend in ways that move prices, and influence price formation when benchmark markets reopen. It also identified the problem of crude cash markets being assessed during defined windows rather than continuously.

Kalshi’s WTIFUTURE filing responds to that concern by tying the product’s trading hours and funding calculations to the NYMEX reference contract’s own session. The filing says no premium is computed, and no settlement price or funding payment is derived, from a period when the reference contract is not trading.

What happened to CME’s 24/7 crude contract?

CME Group withdrew the planned 10-Barrel Crude Oil futures contract on October 2, 2026. In a company statement, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Terry Duffy said CME had created the product as a regulated alternative to around-the-clock oil contracts, but that discussions with industry participants showed concern that introducing 24/7 trading in energy without further due diligence could create unintended consequences and additional market risk.

The withdrawal followed the CFTC’s July 9 stay of the self-certified 24/7 crude product. CME’s October statement said the company hoped the CFTC would address what CME described as an uneven competitive field and ensure derivatives products meet Commodity Exchange Act standards.

Kalshi’s filing enters that same policy fight from a different procedural posture. WTIFUTURE is not weekend oil trading, and it is not a no-expiration perpetual. It is a certified, long-dated, funding-based cash-settled crude future built around the existing NYMEX WTI futures market.

How does this fit into the broader perpetuals dispute?

The CFTC approved Kalshi’s BTCPERP contract on May 29, 2026, under Regulation 40.3. The agency described BTCPERP as a perpetual contract referencing the spot price of bitcoin and approved it as a futures contract. That same policy turn is now being litigated.

CME sued the CFTC and Chairman Selig in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on June 18, 2026, challenging the agency’s approval of Kalshi’s bitcoin perpetual and related treatment of perpetual-style digital commodity products. CME’s complaint argues that perpetual contracts should be treated as swaps under Dodd-Frank rather than futures, and seeks to vacate the CFTC’s May 29 approval.

WTIFUTURE does not present the same fact pattern as BTCPERP because it has a ten-year expiration. Still, the crude filing shows how the legal and commercial fight over funding-based futures is moving beyond crypto into benchmark physical commodities. The next practical milestone is not a late-November approval deadline. It is whether the CFTC allows the certified WTIFUTURE listing to remain in place, or uses its authority under Regulation 40.2(c) to stay the self-certification for further review.