Kalshi files to cut single-stock perpetual minimums to 0.0002 shares
Kalshi has filed to reduce minimum trade sizes for 58 single-stock perpetual futures contracts to 0.0002 shares. The CFTC- regulated exchange aims to lower entry barriers for smaller investors. The move comes eight days after the product launched on Nov. 5 and after the contracts traded $1.75 billion in their first week. Most trades have been small. The filing marks Kalshi's push to expand its equity-linked derivatives beyond event contracts.
The micro-minimum filing turns an institutional-grade derivative into a retail-sized bet, directly targeting the Robinhood user base that already drove $1.75 billion in opening-week volume. Kalshi risks a race to the bottom on sizing before the CFTC even clears the product's foundational legality. The SEC has refused to bless the perpetuals, and Wall Street clearinghouses are suing to unwind them entirely.
Kalshi wins the sizing war but loses the underlying approval fight, it will have trained a retail audience for a product that ceases to exist. Competitors like Cboe are building SEC-regulated alternatives that avoid this CFTC swamp entirely. Kalshi's $65 billion valuation pitch depends on proving it can outrun regulator shutdowns, not just outprice rivals on ticket size.
Joins Robinhood's event-contract revenue flip to $173 million in Q3 and Cboe's SEC-regulated mini-Russell launch as the third major retail-facing sizing move this quarter, as prediction-market operators race to capture small-ticket traders across competing regulatory frameworks.