Polymarket launches 20x perpetual futures for international traders only
Polymarket launched a perpetual futures product called Perps for international traders, offering up to 20x leverage. The product expands beyond the platform's traditional binary event contracts. U.S. users are blocked from accessing the new product and are instead directed to Polymarket's separate CFTC-regulated domestic exchange, which does not offer perps. The company framed the launch as narrowing the distance between having an opinion and being able to trade on it.
Polymarket's geographic split traps U.S. leverage demand on Kalshi's slower-moving CFTC track while offshore competitors retain the global crypto depth Polymarket now chases. Kalshi must build liquidity fast across crude, bitcoin, and soon equity index perps before traders consolidate elsewhere. CME Group faces pressure on two fronts.
It already sued the CFTC over Kalshi's bitcoin perps in June, and now a prediction-market platform is racing to list commodities and indexes CME has long controlled. The winner sets margin and fee templates the incumbent must match or lose flow to. Offshore perpetual exchanges still own global leverage depth, so Polymarket's 20x headline is entry, not dominance.