Kalshi filed with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Tuesday to launch perpetual futures contracts tied to U.S. equity indexes and copper, the company's latest effort to expand beyond its prediction market roots into traditional derivatives territory.
The equity index filing seeks to list a perpetual futures contract — known as a "perp" — on the MerQube U.S. Large Cap Index, which tracks the 500 largest companies listed and based in the U.S., according to CNBC . SEC approval is not required for the equity index contracts, Reuters reported, because broad-based equity baskets fall within the CFTC's regulatory purview rather than the SEC's.
The copper contract, designated COPPERPERP, would be a cash-settled perpetual futures contract referencing the spot price of copper in U.S. dollars per pound, using the Pyth Network XCU/USD price feed as its underlying price index, Kalshi said. Each contract would represent 1,000 pounds of copper, with a minimum tick of $0.0005 per pound. The contract would trade continuously from 6:00 PM Eastern Time on Sunday through 5:00 PM Eastern Time on Friday, with a funding payment calculated daily at 10:00 AM Eastern Time on weekdays to keep the contract price aligned with the spot reference price, Kalshi said.
Unlike standard futures, perpetual contracts have no set expiration, meaning traders can maintain a position for as long as they choose. To keep the contract price close to the spot market, the structure relies on periodic funding payments exchanged between opposing sides of the trade.
A month earlier, Kalshi had submitted a CFTC proposal for perps on precious metals such as gold and silver, according to CNBC. The equity index and copper filings extend that push into additional asset classes as the company works to position itself as a multi-asset derivatives exchange competing with established operators.
Kalshi became the first company to offer regulated domestic perpetual futures in the U.S. when the CFTC approved its bitcoin perpetual contract in late May. The company noted that perps recorded more than $90 trillion in global volume in 2025, a market that U.S. traders could previously access only by going through unregulated venues outside the country. Kalshi's own crypto perps crossed $1 billion in notional volume within a week of launch .
CME Group and CBOE Global Markets saw their shares slide in early June after the CFTC greenlighted domestic perps, with investors worried the new product would erode business at established futures exchanges; CME Group subsequently sued the CFTC in federal court to challenge the decision. Both stocks were higher on Tuesday, with CME Group stock up 2% and CBOE Global Markets stock rising 0.2%.
