Kraken launched CFTC-regulated perpetual futures for US clients through Bitnomial, tapping a $60T annual market. The move follows May CFTC guidance that cleared the product for regulated platforms.
Kraken started offering regulated perpetual futures to U.S. customers Monday, moving one of crypto's most heavily traded products onshore after years of offshore dominance.
The contracts trade on Bitnomial, the CFTC-regulated exchange Kraken's parent company Payward bought last year. Users access them through Kraken Pro alongside spot trading, margin trading, and CME-listed crypto futures, the company said in a blog post.
Perpetual futures let traders bet on bitcoin or other assets without owning them and without an expiry date. Positions stay open as long as margin holds. The format has become the backbone of crypto derivatives: Kraken said annual perpetual volume topped $60 trillion in 2025.
Most of that volume has flowed through offshore venues like Hyperliquid, which built a following among professional traders for deep liquidity and 24/7 access. Prediction market Kalshi launched perps earlier this month and saw over $1 billion in volume in its first week.
The launch follows a CFTC signal in May that regulated platforms could offer the product. The agency approved Kalshi's bitcoin perpetual contracts and issued guidance that also opened a path for Coinbase (COIN) to connect U.S. clients to global options and perpetual markets.
Kraken has been assembling the pieces for years. It bought NinjaTrader in May 2025 and Bitnomial a year later to get regulated futures infrastructure. It recently added CME-listed crypto futures and margin trading for U.S. customers.
Kraken's head of derivatives John Palmer told CoinDesk last week that adoption could mirror the spot bitcoin ETF trajectory: sophisticated traders enter first, then investment advisers and asset managers follow after internal reviews clear.
At launch the contracts cover BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, ADA, LINK, DOGE, LTC and AVAX. Kraken said it plans to add more contracts and collateral options.
Combined exchange volumes fell 3.45% in May to $4.41 trillion, the lowest since September 2024. RWA perpetual futures volumes rose 10.4% against that trend, hitting a new all-time high.
Prepared with AlphaScala research tooling and grounded in primary market data: live prices, fundamentals, SEC filings, hedge-fund holdings, and insider activity. Each story is checked against AlphaScala publishing rules before release. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.