Kalshi Submits Copper and Equity Index Perpetual Futures Contracts for CFTC Approval

KalshiEX LLC asked the CFTC to approve two new perpetual futures contracts, one on the spot price of copper and one on a U.S. large-cap equity index, expanding its perpetual offerings beyond digital assets.

In the submissions, Kalshi invoked the CFTC's recent approval of its bitcoin perpetual futures contract and an accompanying policy statement, in which the agency said perpetuals referencing asset classes beyond those covered by that order should be submitted for voluntary Commission review under Rule 40.3 ("Voluntary submission of new products for Commission review and approval") rather than be self-certified.

The proposed COPPERPERP contract is a cash-settled perpetual future referencing the Pyth Network XCU/USD price feed for copper. Because the contract references the commodity underlying an enumerated core referenced futures contract under 17 CFR Part 150 ("Limits on Positions"), it adopts the federal spot-month position limit applicable to COMEX Copper, 25,000 contracts at the contract's 1,000-pound unit size.

The proposed US500 contract is a cash-settled perpetual future referencing the MerQube US Large Cap Index, a broad-based security index of the 500 largest U.S. companies. The contract is not subject to federal speculative position limits but carries a position accountability level of $25 million.

Both filings addressed pending litigation in which the Chicago Mercantile Exchange ("CME") sued the CFTC, arguing that perpetual contracts are swaps rather than futures because they lack a fixed delivery date (see prior coverage). Kalshi contended that CME's argument conflicts with case law holding that futures contracts can be of indefinite duration.