Kalshi and Polymarket Announce Plans to Launch Perps
The Information reported that Kalshi planned to begin offering perpetual futures on crypto products.
Perpetual futures, or perps, are contracts with no expiration dates. Trading perps are accessible ways to trade crypto, but they can be risky. Perps allow traders to leverage their positions, increasing gains and losses based on the underlying price movements.
Perps are also among the most popular crypto contracts in the prediction market industry. Crypto exchange Hyperliquid has carved out a successful business by focusing on perps. Daily volume reached $32 billion in 2025, and the exchange boasted 1.4 million customers in January 2026.
Within hours of The Information’s report, Polymarket announced its plans to offer perps. Competition between Kalshi and Polymarket remains fierce, though Polymarket is losing its edge against Kalshi.
Polymarket’s recent challenges add up
Bloomberg reported that Kalshi had not only eclipsed Polymarket’s trade volume, but that Polymarket faces other difficulties.
The Bloomberg article cited Coplan’s management style and tardiness to events.
Some of Polymarket’s challenges are self-imposed. They include botched rollouts of features like their new fee structure. The D.C. pop-up bar also faced technical difficulties on opening night.
The gap between Kalshi’s approach of working within the CFTC’s regulatory framework and Polymarket seeing that framework as something to be challenged is growing as the prediction market industry grapples with how to position itself after its 2025 gains.
New York lawsuits and the Fourth Circuit
New York’s attorney general announced a lawsuit against Coinbase and Gemini for offering prediction markets on sports, elections, and entertainment events on Tuesday.
“Gambling by another name is still gambling, and it is not exempt from regulation under our state laws and Constitution,” said Attorney General James.
Kalshi will argue before the Fourth Circuit on May 7, just weeks after facing a Ninth Circuit unsympathetic to many prediction markets’ arguments. The Fourth Circuit’s case comes from Kalshi’s appeal of its Maryland loss in August.