Kalshi’s US 500 Perpetual Future Tracks 500 Large US Companies

TLDR

• Kalshi launched a US 500 perpetual futures contract on October 6, 2026, tracking 500 large American companies.
• The contract has no fixed expiration date, letting traders hold positions without rolling them over.
• Funding rate payments between long and short traders keep the contract price aligned with the index.
• Kalshi filed for the product with the CFTC in August 2026 and received approval.
• The company is also preparing a West Texas Intermediate crude oil perpetual contract as it expands beyond its original sports and election markets.

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Kalshi has launched a new financial product called the US 500 perpetual future. The contract went live on October 6, 2026.

Today we launched the first stock index perpetual future in America.

You can now trade a perp on the US 500, an index of America’s largest companies weighted by market cap.

Stock index perps let you trade the broader market with greater capital efficiency and make it easier to… pic.twitter.com/8I1u91EQrK

— Kalshi (@Kalshi) October 6, 2026

This product tracks a Kalshi index made up of 500 of the largest companies in the United States. The index is based on the MerQube US Large Cap Index.

Kalshi is best known as a prediction market platform. People use it to place wagers on things like elections and sports outcomes.

What Is a Perpetual Future

A perpetual future, often called a “perp,” is a type of derivative contract. Unlike regular futures, it has no expiration date.

Kalshi just launched the first S&P 500 perpetual future in America. Long or short the world’s largest index with leverage 24/7. 🚀

You can trade stocks on Kalshi now, with 15x leverage.pic.twitter.com/2FiQNcVX1f https://t.co/pSEtAkNkNL

— Wall Street Mav (@WallStreetMav) October 6, 2026

This means traders can hold their position for as long as they want. They do not need to close it out and open a new one when a contract period ends.

To keep the contract’s price in line with the actual index, Kalshi uses something called a funding rate. This is a periodic payment exchanged between traders who are long and traders who are short.

Traders using this contract can take leveraged positions. That means they can bet on the index going up or going down, using less capital than it would take to buy the actual stocks.

The company filed for this product with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission back in August 2026. That filing has now resulted in a live product.

Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour spoke about the launch in a statement. He said stock market exposure is the next step toward Kalshi becoming a full service financial exchange.

He added that perpetual futures are the best way for the company’s traders to access that kind of exposure.

Kalshi’s Broader Expansion Plans

This launch builds on Kalshi’s earlier moves into other markets. The company previously added perpetual futures tied to crypto and metals.

Kalshi is now preparing to file for a different kind of contract. This one would track West Texas Intermediate crude oil, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to Reuters last month.

The company has also tested products linked to specific individual stocks in the United States. Those contracts would also allow leveraged long or short positions without the trader needing to own actual shares.

Kalshi says there is a benefit to using a single perpetual contract instead of traditional futures. Traditional futures split trading volume across several different expiration dates throughout the year.

A perpetual contract does not expire, so trading activity stays in one place rather than being spread out. The company says this can make it easier for traders to enter and exit positions.

The US 500 product lets traders bet against the overall stock market too. They can take a short position without needing to use options contracts.

This marks Kalshi entering a space long dominated by major futures exchanges. The company is doing so with a different contract structure than what has traditionally been offered for stock index trading.

Separately, prediction market platform Polymarket has introduced what it calls Protocol V2. It is a full rewrite of the smart contracts that power its own prediction markets.

Kalshi has not announced further details on timing for its planned oil contract. The company said its stock index and metals perpetual products remain part of its push to build a full service trading platform.