Kalshi has officially launched a perpetual futures contract tied to a US stock index comprised of 500 companies, marking the debut of the first US-regulated stock-index perpetual product. This milestone comes just 49 days after the US500 contract was filed with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on August 18, 2026.

A perpetual futures contract is unique in that it does not have an expiry date. As a designated contract market, Kalshi operates as a US futures exchange under CFTC oversight. The new contract tracks the MerQube US Large Cap Index, which is defined as a price-return index that accounts for the 500 largest US companies by float-adjusted market capitalization, excluding dividends.

It’s important to note that the exposure to this index is synthetic, meaning that holders won’t receive dividends or voting rights. Each index point holds a value of $1, with the option to trade fractional positions as low as 0.0001. This contract has no expiry, but engages participants in a daily exchange of a funding rate, essentially a periodic payment between traders with long and short positions, established at 4 PM New York time on business days.

Trading hours extend from 6 PM on Sunday until 5 PM on Friday, and Kalshi Klear, the exchange’s clearing house, manages the contract using a risk-based margin framework. This launch follows closely on the heels of Kalshi’s introduction of a bitcoin perpetual contract, cleared by the CFTC at the end of May 2026, as well as gold and silver perpetuals released on September 10, 2026.

In contrast, other offshore venues have been offering similar equity-index perpetuals, such as Trade[XYZ] on Hyperliquid and the SPYUSDT contract on Binance and Bybit.

Kalshi distinguishes itself by providing regulated access within the US market. For those involved in offshore perpetual venues and companies offering contracts for difference (CFDs) or index futures, Kalshi’s product represents a significant regulated alternative. The swift turnaround from filing to launch, just 49 days, underscores the capability of a designated contract market to introduce a perpetual product efficiently.