Polymarket, Kalshi to Launch Perpetual Futures

Polymarket and Kalshi, two dominant prediction markets platforms, are both planning to launch perpetual futures, a type of crypto-native futures contracts that never expire.

Polymarket said in a Tuesday video post on X that perpetual futures tied to crypto tokens, U.S. stocks and commodities are coming to the platform. It isn't clear whether Polymarket is planning to offer them in the U.S. where such instruments are largely inaccessible. (Polymarket has a data partnership with Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal.)

Kalshi is also planning to offer perpetual futures tied to cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, according to The Information, which earlier reported on the news. A spokeswoman for Kalshi declined to comment.

Perpetual futures are a highly speculative flavor of derivative that offers traders extreme leverage to amplify their bets on financial assets. They gained mainstream attention recently when traders on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid took advantage of their 24/7 availability to bet on oil prices during the weekends, when traditional markets were closed.