Kalshi and Polymarket Race to Launch Crypto Perpetual Futures, Challenging Coinbase and Robinhood

Kalshi is reportedly launching crypto perpetual futures and Polymarket announced the same product the same day, putting both prediction market giants in direct competition with established crypto exchanges.

Kalshi and Polymarket are entering the perpetual futures market, marking a significant expansion for both platforms beyond their prediction market roots and placing them in direct competition with established crypto exchanges.

Kalshi is set to launch perpetual futures for assets such as Bitcoin, The Information reported on April 21, citing people familiar with the matter. Kalshi holds multiple CFTC licenses and secured approval for margin trading last month, giving it a regulatory path to offer the product onshore. The launch would be its first product outside event-based binary contracts.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

Polymarket responded the same day with an X post featuring a video showing leveraged trading on crypto, equities including Nvidia and Coinbase, gold, and other assets at up to 10x leverage, with the message: “We price the future. Now you can lever it.” Polymarket registered with the CFTC as a designated contract market in July 2025. It has not specified whether its perpetuals will be offered on its US-facing platform, its international version, or both. An early-access waitlist went live at polymarket.com/perps.

The move arrives as both platforms are raising significant capital. Kalshi was finalizing a $1 billion raise at a $22 billion valuation as of this week, while Polymarket is in talks to raise $400 million at a $15 billion valuation, according to The Information. Together they put direct competitive pressure on Coinbase, which closed a $2.9 billion acquisition of derivatives exchange Deribit in August 2025 and has been building a domestic perps offering but has yet to launch true open-ended perpetuals in the US.

Robinhood and Kraken have also expanded into prediction markets, highlighting the convergence from both directions. CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said last month the agency plans to formally authorize perpetuals in the US, which would accelerate the product’s mainstream availability.