Kraken launches CFTC-regulated perpetual futures for US customers

For years, American crypto traders who wanted access to perpetual futures had two options: move offshore or don’t trade them at all. Kraken just opened door number three.

The exchange launched CFTC-regulated perpetual futures contracts on its Kraken Pro platform on June 15, making it one of the first major platforms to offer the product domestically through a fully regulated venue. The contracts trade on Bitnomial, a CFTC-regulated designated contract market that Kraken’s parent company Payward acquired for up to $550 million, with the deal closing in May 2026.

What’s actually launching

The initial rollout covers nine tokens: BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, ADA, LINK, DOGE, LTC, and AVAX. Kraken plans to expand the lineup after launch.

For anyone unfamiliar with perpetual futures, here’s the deal. Traditional futures contracts expire on a set date. Perpetuals don’t. They let traders hold leveraged positions indefinitely, with an 8-hour funding rate mechanism that keeps the contract price tethered to the underlying spot price.

This structure has made perpetuals the single most traded instrument in all of crypto. Global perpetual futures volume exceeded $60 trillion in 2025. The vast majority of that trading happened offshore, on platforms operating outside the reach of US regulators.

The CFTC provided the necessary approvals and guidance on May 29, clearing the path for Kraken’s launch roughly two weeks later.

The perpetual contracts integrate directly into Kraken’s existing futures wallet, the same one that already houses CME-listed contracts. That means eligible US customers can now access spot trading, margin trading, CME futures, and perpetual futures through a single interface.

Why this took so long

Kraken didn’t stumble into this. The company has been assembling the regulatory infrastructure piece by piece. Payward acquired NinjaTrader in 2025, a move that helped facilitate its CFTC registration. The Bitnomial acquisition, valued at up to $550 million, gave Kraken the designated contract market status it needed to actually list and clear regulated perpetual contracts.

Kraken Pro Head Darius Tabatabai framed the launch as a key moment for sophisticated traders and institutions looking to engage with crypto derivatives in a compliant environment.

What this means for investors

Over $60 trillion in annual perpetual futures volume was traded globally last year, and almost none of it happened within US regulatory boundaries.

Tabatabai acknowledged that initial participation will come from sophisticated retail traders before broader institutional adoption kicks in, noting this mirrors how Bitcoin ETF flows developed.

The risk for traders is that early-stage regulated markets can be thinner than their offshore counterparts. Liquidity takes time to build, and the depth of order books won’t match Binance or Bybit overnight.

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