CFTC regulatory breakthrough: Prediction market Kalshi launches 50 single-stock perpetual contracts, with first-morning trading volume exceeding $300 million

Kalshi launched more than 50 single-stock perpetual futures contracts covering major U.S. equities and ETFs just two days after the CFTC authorized registered exchanges to offer the product, with first-morning matched volume exceeding $300 million. The contracts, which Kalshi calls the first compliant single-stock perps in the U.S., let traders go long or short without holding the underlying stock, carry no fixed expiry or rollover costs, and fall under joint CFTC and SEC oversight as security futures. Co-founder Lopes Lara said the $300 million in volume came organically without a major marketing push. The launch marks a regulatory breakthrough after years in which offshore crypto exchanges dominated stock perpetuals, and it opens a new front for onshore derivatives competition. Watch whether volume holds beyond the first session and how Kalshi's separate legal fights over sports contracts in California and Arkansas unfold.