The Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved KalshiEX's bitcoin perpetual futures product on May 29, handing U.S. institutions a regulated alternative to offshore venues. The decision — formally CFTC Release No. 9240-26 — lets KalshiEX list BTCPERP, a cash-settled perpetual contract tied to CF Benchmarks' Bitcoin Real Time Index. Alongside the approval, the CFTC issued a policy statement requiring case-by-case review of perpetuals under Regulation 40.3, and its Market Participants Division released a letter allowing certain margin practices for Deribit-linked trades. Collectively, the actions signal a quiet but meaningful shift in how American regulators treat a product class they've long kept at arm's length.
BTCPERP by the numbers
BTCPERP is a bitcoin-referenced perpetual futures product — no expiry, 24/7 trading, quoted in units of 0.0001 BTC. Settlement is cash, using CF Benchmarks' Bitcoin Real Time Index. That means no physical delivery of bitcoin. The product is designed for institutional traders who want bitcoin exposure in a regulated framework, without the capital inefficiency of futures that roll every quarter.
The case-by-case door
The CFTC's Policy Statement makes clear this isn't a blanket green light for every perpetual. Going forward, each product will be reviewed individually under Regulation 40.3. That's a break from the past, when U.S. regulators effectively blocked perpetuals from trading on domestic venues. The agency is now granting legitimacy — but on a leash. Every new filing will face scrutiny on settlement, leverage, and market integrity.
Margin relief for Deribit users
Separately, the CFTC's Market Participants Division issued Letter No. 26-17. It permits registered futures commission merchants to post customer-owned digital commodities and stablecoins as margin with an affiliated foreign broker for certain Deribit perpetuals, with re-use allowed. That's a practical concession for firms that already trade on Deribit and want to use the same collateral across accounts. It doesn't expand the product menu, but it eases capital friction for firms operating on both sides of the border.
DeFi perpetual DEX teams are directly affected by this week's news. They've relied on the absence of an onshore alternative to attract traders who can't or won't use offshore exchanges. Now there's a CFTC-approved product that competes on capital efficiency and doesn't require custody of bitcoin. Institutions that couldn't access offshore venues or non-custodial DEXs now have a regulated option. DeFi projects will need to sharpen their value proposition — lower fees, different leverage structures, or unique index designs — to hold onto market share.
The next test comes when other exchanges file their own perpetual proposals under the new case-by-case regime. How the CFTC handles products with different settlement currencies or higher leverage will determine just how open this door really is.
