Polymarket announced early access for perpetual futures trading, while The Information reported that Kalshi is planning a similar product launch.
The two largest prediction market platforms by trading volume are both moving into perpetual futures trading, per reports arriving within hours of each other on Tuesday, April 21.
Polymarket’s move is official. The on-chain prediction marketplace posted on X Tuesday evening: “Perps are coming to Polymarket.” The platform is accepting early access sign-ups for the product, which will allow traders to take leveraged long or short positions on assets including BTC, stocks, and gold without a fixed expiration date.
Separately, The Information reported on Tuesday morning that Kalshi plans to launch crypto trading, beginning with perpetual futures, citing people familiar with the matter.
According to the report, Kalshi will start with crypto perps and may expand to perps tied to other asset classes over time.
Perp trading has exploded in popularity over the past year, notably on decentralized platforms, mostly led by Hyperliquid. But centralized platforms, led by Binance, still dominate in terms of volumes and open interest, per CoinGecko data.
Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Michael Selig said last month that the agency plans to allow regulated perpetual futures in the United States, to attract trading volume back from offshore platforms.
The Information’s report notes that Kalshi recently secured a CFTC margin trading license, positioning it to offer the product.
The move would put both Polymarket and Kalshi in more direct competition with both centralized and on-chain exchange platforms, several of which, like Coinbasehave begun adding prediction markets.
Combined monthly trading volumes on Kalshi and Polymarket last month reached over $23 billionan all-time high. Since the start of this year, both platforms have consistently seen near or over $2 billion in trades each week, per Token Terminal data.
Regulatory Questions
The launches come amid rapid regulatory change for the sector. The CFTC launched a sweeping review of prediction markets in Marchafter Chair Selig clarified that the agency thinks such platforms should be regulated federally, not by each state. At the same time, both platforms continue to face state-level legal pressureas gambling is a state-regulated activity in the U.S. and multiple states have alleged that the platforms need gambling regulator licenses to operate in the state.
This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.