Kraken said late Friday that it expects to launch CFTC-regulated U.S. perpetual futures within the next 30 days, hours after the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved the instruments.
The exchange said that once approved, the contracts will be listed on the Bitnomial Exchange, a CFTC-regulated exchange that was recently acquired by Kraken’s parent company, Payward.
Payward announced on April 17 that it is acquiring crypto derivatives platform Bitnomial for as much as $550 million, with the goal of giving Kraken Pro users access to Bitnomial’s ongoing supply of futures contracts.
However, while Kraken’s announcement said the application was submitted on Friday, no application was found for a specific Bitcoin (BTC) permanent contact among Bitnomial’s recent CFTC sawdust from Sunday morning. “Today’s announcement initiates plans to bring that activity onshore through a CFTC-regulated venue,” the announcement said.
“U.S. clients will soon be able to trade permanent futures contracts @KrakenPro”, the company posted on social media on Saturday.
Source: Kraken on X.com
Requests for additional information about the filing sent to two Kraken directors and Bitnomial’s chief regulatory officer were not immediately responded to.
To be sure, companies often make requests to treat their applications confidentially. KalshiEX, which received CFTC approval on Friday to trade a BTC perpetual futures contract, originally requested confidential treatment of that filing in an undated letter to the CFTC.
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The race is on to lead the perpetrators of the regulated US market
Shortly after the CFTC approved BTC perp contracts on Friday morning, Coinbase Financial Markets moved quickly out of the blocks to offer US institutional clients access to global crypto options and perpetual futures markets through regulated futures trader, Deribit.
Deribit, which was acquired by Coinbase in August 2025 as part of its expansion into crypto derivatives, is the largest crypto options exchange by open interest.
Notice of CFTC Approval for Trading BTC Perpetuals on Kalshi. Source: CFTC
The US Securities and Exchange Commission and the CFTC said in September they would explore ways to bring permanent onshore futures trading. In the wrist statementagencies said that permanent contracts were mostly limited to offshore crypto markets due to regulatory and jurisdictional restrictions.
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig he said on Friday “In my view, the question was never whether permanent crypto asset contracts would exist. Rather, the question was whether they would exist under American oversight, American standards, and American rule of law.”
Also on Friday, CFTC staff issued guidelines on 24/7 trading, clearing and settlement, saying that crypto-asset derivatives may be particularly suitable for 24-hour markets.
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