Kalshi expanded its CFTC-regulated perpetual lineup to 18 contracts on Sept. 4, adding five altcoin markets including BNB and Cardano for eligible U.S. traders. The dollar-margined, non-expiring products arrive as the CFTC presses a court to dismiss CME Group's lawsuit over how perpetuals are classified.
Kalshi added BNB, Cardano, Worldcoin, Aave and Venice Token perpetuals on Sept. 4, taking its CFTC-regulated lineup to Bitcoin and 17 altcoins.
"CME is wrong on the merits — perpetual futures are futures," the Commodity Futures Trading Commission wrote in a Sept. 2 filing urging a federal judge to dismiss CME Group's lawsuit, arguing the exchange lacks standing because it can list comparable contracts itself.
The new contracts are margined and settled in U.S. dollars, carry no expiration and allow long or short positions. Maximum leverage reaches about 4.5 times for BNB and 1.9 times for Venice Token, according to Kalshi's product pages. The additions join existing markets for Ether, XRP, Solana, Hyperliquid and Zcash.
The listings extend a push that began in May, when the CFTC authorized Kalshi's Bitcoin perpetual and issued related regulatory relief for Coinbase. CME sued in June, arguing a contract without an expiration or delivery date meets the Commodity Exchange Act's definition of a swap and went through the wrong approval process.
CME contends the agency's approach bypassed requirements set for swaps, which face stricter oversight than futures. The CFTC counters that its May order lets any registered designated contract market — not just Kalshi — list perpetuals on digital commodities, and cited public comments from CME executives that customers had not requested the products as evidence against a claim of competitive injury.
Kalshi operates as a CFTC-regulated designated contract market, and its new products appeared after the platform submitted contract materials through the regulator's public filing system. A filing's presence in that database does not always mean the full commission held an affirmative vote on an individual contract, the platform's disclosures note.
The more consequential event will be the federal court's response to the CFTC dismissal motion, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The agency requested oral argument, though no hearing date had appeared on the public docket. A dismissal would end CME's current challenge without settling whether perpetuals are futures or swaps; if the case proceeds, the court could examine the CFTC's classification directly.
Further listings are possible. Filings tied to XLM, DOT and HBAR were reportedly awaiting completion, though launch dates were not confirmed. Kalshi also filed in August to list a copper perpetual, a test of whether the structure can move beyond digital assets into regulated commodity markets.
For U.S. traders, the additions widen access to a derivatives structure historically concentrated on offshore venues, where perpetuals account for a large share of crypto trading volume. Whether that onshore channel keeps growing depends on the court's treatment of the CFTC's dismissal motion and, ultimately, on how regulators classify a contract that never expires.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
