Kalshi Wants to Bring 24/7 Tesla, Apple and Nvidia Perpetuals to US Traders: Why the Fight Over Stock-Linked Perps Just Started

Kalshi Wants to Bring 24/7 Tesla, Apple and Nvidia Perpetuals to US Traders: Why the Fight Over Stock-Linked Perps Just Started

Kalshi, the prediction-market operator that has spent 2026 pushing deeper into derivatives, is preparing to seek US regulatory approval for roughly 60 perpetual futures contracts tied to stocks and exchange-traded funds, including Tesla, Apple and Nvidia, according to a Wall Street Journal report published on September 10. If approved, the move would give American traders regulated access to single-stock perpetual futures for the first time, without routing orders through offshore crypto exchanges.

The proposal lands directly inside one of the messiest jurisdictional disputes in American market regulation: a four-way tug of war involving the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, CME Group and Citadel Securities, all disagreeing about how perpetual contracts should be classified and which regulator should supervise products linked to US securities.

How the products would work

Perpetual futures, or perps, let traders take long or short positions without a fixed expiration date. Traditional futures expire on scheduled dates and force traders to roll positions into later contracts. Perps instead use recurring funding payments between long and short traders to keep the contract price anchored to its reference asset. When a perp trades above the reference price, longs typically pay shorts; the direction reverses when the perp trades below it.

Leverage lets users control positions far larger than their posted collateral, which magnifies gains when the market moves in a trader’s favor and triggers forced liquidations when it does not.

Kalshi’s proposed lineup would track some of the most heavily traded names in the market, including Tesla, Apple and Nvidia, along with a set of ETFs that the report did not identify. Around-the-clock trading would let a Tesla perp keep moving after the Nasdaq closes and through the weekend, even though the underlying stock itself trades only during established exchange sessions with limited extended-hours activity.

There are significant open questions. Kalshi has not published a product list, leverage limits, margin requirements or a launch timetable, and no related filing was publicly identified in the report. No company has endorsed a Kalshi contract linked to its shares. A derivative tracking Tesla or Nvidia would carry no ownership rights, no voting rights and no dividends. Kalshi would also need to define how its contracts process corporate actions such as stock splits, dividends, mergers and trading suspensions, and how prices would be calculated while the primary stock market is closed.

Bitcoin approval does not extend to stocks

The regulatory foundation Kalshi stands on was built for crypto, not equities. The CFTC approved Kalshi’s BTCPERP Bitcoin perpetual contract on May 29, one day after it was submitted, giving eligible US traders regulated access to leveraged Bitcoin exposure without an expiration date. But that approval applied only to the submitted Bitcoin product. The regulator has said perpetual futures linked to different asset classes may require individual assessment, and stock-linked perps fall squarely within securities markets overseen by the SEC.

Kalshi has since extended its perpetuals business to gold and silver, and has pursued a contract tracking West Texas Intermediate crude oil. None of that resolves the harder question of single-stock perps. Single-stock futures have previously operated under a joint SEC-CFTC framework, but Kalshi’s planned contracts would differ by carrying no expiration date and relying on funding payments.

The CFTC has not announced approval of any equity product, and Kalshi’s reported intention to apply should not be read as authorization.

Citadel warns of a parallel shadow market

Citadel Securities fired the most forceful objection so far. In a September 10 letter to the SEC and CFTC, responding to a joint request about how the agencies define and divide financial products, the trading firm argued that perpetual contracts tied to publicly traded companies should remain within securities regulation regardless of how they are structured.

Citadel warned that placing equity-linked perps outside SEC oversight could create a parallel shadow market, because the contracts would still draw their economic value from securities even if packaged as futures. Existing securities surveillance connects activity across stocks, listed options and related instruments; running a perp through a separate regulatory system could limit regulators’ ability to compare orders and positions across connected markets.

The firm cited insider trading as a specific concern. An employee holding unreleased earnings information could trade a company-linked perp while the stock exchange was closed, subject only to the platform’s own controls. Trading halts raise a related problem: a stock can be suspended after a major announcement, yet an independently operated perp might keep changing hands unless both venues coordinate their procedures.

Citadel’s letter is a regulatory position, not a binding interpretation. Neither agency has issued a joint decision on Kalshi’s planned products.

The CME lawsuit hanging over everything

A separate legal fight could determine whether Kalshi’s expansion is legally possible at all. CME Group sued the CFTC and its chairman Michael Selig in June over the agency’s approval of perpetual futures for Kalshi and Coinbase. CME argues the products qualify as swaps under the Dodd-Frank Act and has asked a federal court in Washington, D.C. to overturn the May 29 Bitcoin approval and the agency’s related policy, claiming competitive harm from retail derivatives offered under different rules.

A CFTC spokesperson called the action frivolous, while Kalshi framed the dispute as being about competition. The court has not ruled, and a decision against the CFTC could undercut the legal foundation Kalshi would need for its stock and ETF contracts.

The backdrop is a market that keeps growing. Perpetual-futures trading volume rose 29 percent to 61.7 trillion USD during 2025, according to CryptoQuant data cited by Reuters, though that figure reflects mostly crypto derivatives rather than demand for US stock perps.

For now, the score is simple: Kalshi has the roadmap, the Bitcoin precedent and the appetite. What it does not have is a regulator’s signature, a rival market maker’s blessing, or a court’s blessing for the framework underneath it all. Until at least one of those arrives, 24/7 Tesla and Nvidia perps remain a plan, not a product.