Kraken launches U.S. perpetual futures on Kraken Pro

Kraken has launched perpetual futures trading for U.S. customers on its Kraken Pro platform. The contracts provide continuous exposure to underlying crypto assets without a fixed expiration date. The rollout follows Kraken’s acquisition of Bitnomial and recent Commodity Futures Trading Commission approvals for onshore crypto derivatives.

Perpetual futures, often called perps, are derivative contracts that let traders hold exposure to assets such as bitcoin and ether indefinitely. Perps use periodic funding-rate payments between long and short positions to keep perp prices close to the spot market.

Kraken completed its purchase of Bitnomial in May. Bitnomial is a CFTC-licensed exchange, clearinghouse and brokerage. Kraken has said the acquisition provides onshore infrastructure and regulatory permissions that enabled the new perp offering on Kraken Pro.

The CFTC recently approved several onshore products that resemble perpetual contracts, including Kalshi’s bitcoin perpetual contract and a five-year, perpetual-style futures product from Coinbase. Kalshi’s bitcoin perpetual contract reached more than $1 billion in volume shortly after its launch.

Offshore platforms continue to handle the largest share of global perp volume. Those platforms generally restrict U.S. users under their terms of service, and U.S. users seeking perpetual exposure have often used offshore venues with different legal and counterparty frameworks.

Kraken has taken additional steps to expand its derivatives capabilities. The company acquired the CFTC-registered trading software provider NinjaTrader to support a planned Kraken Derivatives US platform, which the company says will debut in mid-2025 and offer CME-listed crypto futures tied to bitcoin, ether and solana. Kraken’s acquisitions of Bitnomial and NinjaTrader are intended to build onshore clearing and execution infrastructure for derivatives.

Regulators and exchange operators have argued that domestic perp products offer clearer oversight and consumer protections compared with offshore alternatives. The availability of perps on regulated U.S. platforms has increased following recent CFTC approvals and industry filings, and several firms have rolled out or announced perp-style products for U.S. customers.