Kraken has rolled out CFTC-regulated perpetual futures for eligible US clients, bringing one of crypto’s most heavily traded derivatives products onshore and into the same interface as spot, margin and CME-listed futures on Kraken Pro.
The launch matters because perpetuals are the workhorse contract in digital-asset derivatives. Unlike standard futures, they have no expiry date, so traders can keep leveraged long or short exposure open without rolling positions forward. That flexibility has helped drive the market to more than $60 trillion in annual volume in 2025, according to Kraken’s figures.
Until now, US traders have had limited regulated access to that market, and most of the flow has sat offshore. Kraken is trying to pull part of that activity into a CFTC-regulated venue through contracts listed on Bitnomial, the exchange owned by its parent, Payward. The first slate covers BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, ADA, LINK, DOGE, LTC and AVAX.
Funding will be charged or paid every eight hours – at 7:00 p.m., 3:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. CT – which is the standard mechanism used to keep perpetuals close to the spot price. When the contract trades above the underlying asset, longs pay shorts. When it trades below, the payment flips the other way. For active traders, that funding rate is not a footnote. It can make or break a position over time.
Kraken said the perpetual futures sit in the same futures wallet as its existing CME-listed contracts, letting clients manage regulated crypto exposure in one place. That bundling is the real pitch here. Traders who have been juggling offshore venues, spot balances and exchange-specific risk now get a domestic alternative with a cleaner workflow.
The exchange also said it plans to broaden the list of contracts and add more collateral options over time. That leaves two obvious watch items: whether volumes migrate quickly from offshore venues, and whether Kraken can expand the product set without running into the liquidity or margin constraints that tend to slow first-wave launches.
Kraken opens CFTC-regulated perpetual futures to US clients
Kraken has launched CFTC-regulated perpetual futures for US traders, allowing regulated, indefinite leveraged exposure to major crypto assets on Kraken Pro. This new offering brings a large offshore derivatives market onshore under regulatory oversight.