Kraken Launches Perpetual Futures Trading for US Users via Bitnomial

Kraken on Monday launched perpetual futures trading for eligible US users through Bitnomial, expanding its domestic derivatives offerings months after acquiring the federally regulated exchange.

The products are available through Kraken Pro and include contracts tied to major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL), XRP (XRP), Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK), Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC) and Avalanche (AVAX).

According to Monday's announcement, the contracts share the same futures wallet as Kraken's existing CME-listed crypto futures products, allowing traders to manage both positions from a single account.

Kraken said perpetual futures, a type of derivative contract with no expiration date, generated more than $60 trillion in global trading volume in 2025 and have largely been traded on offshore platforms rather than regulated US venues.

Kraken has expanded its US trading offerings over the past year, adding support for CME-listed crypto futures in July 2025 and launching margin trading for eligible US customers earlier this month.

Monday's launch follows Kraken's late-May announcement that it planned to introduce Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regulated perpetual futures through Bitnomial, the crypto derivatives platform acquired by parent company Payward in April.

US exchanges compete for crypto derivatives market

Kraken's launch comes amid a broader push by USexchanges to bring crypto derivatives trading onshore.

On May 29, the CFTC approved Kalshi's Bitcoin perpetual futures contract and issued a no-action position for Coinbase, paving the way for regulated perpetual futures products in the domestic market.

That same day, the company announced that its Coinbase Financial Markets unit would provide US institutional clients access to global crypto perpetual futures and options markets, which the exchange said account for roughly 80% of global crypto trading volume.

Kalshi also launched perpetual futures contracts on May 29, describing the products as its most significant expansion beyond prediction markets and a step toward becoming a broader derivatives exchange.

The regulatory approvals followed months of discussion around bringing crypto perpetual futures to the United States.

“The CFTC’s approval of the KalshiEX BTCPERP is not the end of the regulatory story; it is the beginning,” said Gontran de Quillacq, CEO and founder of Navesink International.

In a January speech, CFTC Chair Michael Selig said the agency would use its existing authority to support perpetual futures and other novel derivatives products in the US, arguing that years of regulatory uncertainty had pushed trading activity offshore.

Speaking at the Milken Institute's Future of Finance conference a few months later, Selig said the CFTC was working to establish a framework for "true perpetual futures" in the US.