Crypto exchange Kraken has announced plans to launch the first CFTC-regulated perpetual futures contracts available to U.S. traders. The announcement arrives as parent company Payward accelerates a broader strategic pivot to a full-spectrum digital asset infrastructure company.
Perpetual contracts are derivatives that provide continuous exposure to an underlying asset without an expiration date, eliminating the need to roll positions and giving traders uninterrupted market exposure with greater flexibility than traditional futures contracts. Perpetuals are the most widely traded derivatives in digital asset markets globally, with annual trading volume reaching over $60 trillion in 2025. Until now, most of that volume flowed to the U.S. through offshore, largely unregulated platforms out of reach for compliant U.S. participants.
Kraken filing was submitted on May 29, 2026, routing perpetual futures activity onshore through Bitnomial, a CFTC-regulated designated contract market, and opening access for U.S. traders who previously had little regulated recourse for these instruments. The contracts feature continuous pricing, no expiration, and an eight-hour funding rate, matching the conventional structure for crypto perpetuals, sitting within the same futures wallet as Kraken’s existing CME-listed contracts, so traders can manage both side by side.
“US traders have been waiting for a regulated, domestic way to trade the product that defines global crypto derivatives markets,” said John Palmer, Kraken’s global head of derivatives. “Perpetuals, spot, margin and CME-listed futures now sit on one interface — and that changes how US clients build and manage crypto positions.”
The Perpetuals Regulatory Race
Kraken’s announcement may be first of a kind but surely not last. Kalshi received CFTC approval on May 29 to list BTCPERP, a perpetual futures contract tied to the spot price of Bitcoin, while Coinbase Financial Markets simultaneously moved to offer U.S. institutional clients access to global crypto options and perpetual futures markets through Deribit. That places Kalshi, Coinbase, and Kraken in a fast-moving U.S. derivatives race.
Kraken’s position in that race was carefully engineered. Payward acquired Bitnomial for up to $550 million in April, securing a U.S. derivatives structure covering exchange, clearing, and brokerage services — the regulatory scaffolding needed to make this launch possible.
Bigger Picture: Payward’s Strategic Shift
The perpetual futures push is one piece of a much larger restructuring underway at Payward. Since confirming its IPO plans, the company has signaled ambitions that stretch well beyond crypto trading. Roughly 45% of new Kraken listings in 2026 are now tied to real-world asset products or tokenization infrastructure, according to industry estimates — a striking figure that reflects how seriously the firm is positioning itself within the fast-growing RWA sector. That trajectory also includes Deutsche Börse Group acquiring a $200 million stake in Payward, with the deal set to directly integrate Kraken with 360T, Deutsche Börse’s FX trading venue, giving clients access to bank-grade FX liquidity.
First-Week Impact
The product has not yet formally launched. Eligible U.S. clients will gain access within 30 days of the May 29 announcement. However, its growing momentum is already visible. The story has held top search rankings for a full week, sustained by continuous analysis across major outlets. Kalshi has also moved quickly to expand beyond Bitcoin, filing to certify perpetual futures for XRP, Solana, Dogecoin, and other altcoins — a sign that the initial wave is likely just the opening act of a much broader onshoring of crypto derivatives.
The growing competition among Kraken, Coinbase, and Kalshi reflects rising institutional demand for compliant crypto trading products, and regulated perpetual futures could rapidly become a major segment of the domestic market.
