Kalshi Seeks CFTC Approval for WTI Perpetual Futures

Kalshi plans to ask the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to approve a perpetual futures contract tied to West Texas Intermediate crude oil. The exchange intends the contract to trade around the clock on weekdays and to be closed for the weekend. Kalshi has not published final details for the contract’s reference price, funding cadence, margin or liquidation rules.

Perpetual futures remove a fixed expiry and use a funding mechanism-regular payments between long and short positions-to keep the contract price close to a chosen reference. Kalshi’s existing Bitcoin perpetual trades continuously and uses a real-time index and periodic funding; the proposed WTI product would keep the no-expiry feature while trading only on weekdays.

Physical crude pricing differs from crypto spot markets. Oil prices arise from assessed transactions, delivery windows and storage constraints, while conventional futures relay information across dated delivery months. A perpetual for oil would condense those month-by-month dynamics into a single reference price and a funding system that reflects carry costs and risks of holding exposure over time.

Regulatory review will focus on the choice of reference-whether a front-month futures price, a physical-market assessment, or a composite-and how that choice handles sudden market dislocations. In April 2020, the front-month WTI contract settled below zero while later months remained positive. A perpetual has no terminal delivery event, so its mark price would either reflect such stress or smooth it, and clearing and funding arrangements would need to function under either scenario.

The reported 24/5 trading schedule avoids some operational and settlement issues tied to weekend trading but pauses price discovery over the weekend. Analyses of crypto venues that ran oil perpetuals across weekend closures found that weekend trading sometimes anticipated the direction of conventional futures when markets reopened. Pausing trading from Friday night to Sunday night would leave news and supply shocks to be absorbed when the market reopens, which can produce price gaps and concentrated volatility.

Market structure questions include liquidity, position limits, acceptable collateral and margin settings. Perpetuals depend on active buyers and sellers so funding rates and prices reflect broad supply and demand rather than a few large participants. Low margin requirements can magnify losses and lead to rapid liquidations; automatic liquidation procedures and clearinghouse protections are part of the regulatory review.

A major exchange has separately filed a proposal for a small, cash-settled 10-barrel WTI future with proposed 24/7 trading while preserving monthly expirations; that filing has been placed under additional regulatory review. The two filings show regulators are examining trading hours, expiration mechanics and benchmark effects separately.

If approved, the Kalshi WTI perpetual would offer traders and companies a single instrument to hold continuous oil exposure without manually rolling futures month to month. The CFTC has requested evidence that a perpetual meets a commercial need beyond speculation and whether hedgers would form a significant share of users.

Approval would permit the contract to begin trading. Market participants will track liquidity, the chosen reference methodology, funding-rate behavior around inventory reports and geopolitical events, and how the product handles weekend and delivery-related stress.