Kraken brings crypto's $60 trillion perpetuals market onshore for US traders

Kraken opens regulated perpetual futures to US traders

On 15 June 2026, Kraken launched perpetual futures for eligible United States clients on its Kraken Pro platform. The contracts give domestic traders regulated access to a product that drives most global crypto derivatives volume. They are listed on Bitnomial, a venue overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). At launch, eligible clients can trade contracts tied to Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, XRP, and five other major assets. Kraken plans to expand the contract set and add broader collateral options over time.

Perpetual contracts share one account with other products

Traders can hold the new contracts next to spot, margin, and Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)-listed futures on a single interface. The perpetual contracts use an eight-hour funding rate, the standard structure for crypto perpetuals. Every eight hours, long and short holders exchange a funding payment that keeps the contract price close to the spot price. The contracts also share the same futures wallet as Kraken's existing CME-listed products.

"Perpetuals, spot, margin and CME-listed futures now sit on one interface", 15 June 2026. — Darius Tabatabai, Head of Kraken Pro

Bitnomial purchase built Kraken's US derivatives stack

Kraken reached the launch through parent company Payward, which closed its acquisition of Bitnomial in May 2026. Payward paid up to $550 million in cash and stock for the exchange, a deal that valued Payward at $20 billion. Bitnomial holds CFTC licenses for trading, clearing, and brokerage, a combination no other crypto-native US firm holds. The deal followed Payward's purchase of futures platform NinjaTrader in 2025. Kraken added CME-listed crypto futures in July 2025 and margin trading for US clients earlier in June 2026.

Perpetuals dominate global crypto derivatives trading

Perpetual futures track an asset's price with no expiry date, so traders can hold leveraged positions for as long as they want. The product generated over $60 trillion in trading volume during 2025, according to Kraken. Most of that activity took place on offshore venues, which left US traders with few regulated options before the launch.

Bitcoin traded near $65,800 at publication

Bitcoin traded at $65,766 at the time of publication, down 0.7% over the previous 24 hours (CoinPaprika, 17 June 2026). Its market value stood near $1.32 trillion. Bitcoin is among the nine assets covered by the new Kraken contracts.

CFTC clearances spurred a US derivatives race

The launch followed several moves by the CFTC. On 29 May 2026, the agency approved Kalshi's Bitcoin perpetual contract, one of the first cleared for US trading. Kalshi's perpetual futures then passed $1 billion in trading volume within a week of launch. According to CoinDesk, the CFTC also issued a no-action letter that lets exchanges convert dated futures into true perpetual contracts. That letter is set to expire at the end of June 2026.

Kraken's launch added to a broader race among US exchanges to bring crypto derivatives onshore. Coinbase won approval on 29 May 2026 to connect American users to global perpetual markets. The access runs through Deribit, the options venue it acquired earlier in 2026 for $2.9 billion. Both launches arrived after years in which most perpetual futures trading sat outside the United States.

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