---
type: source
title: "Polymarket and Kalshi Both Launch Perpetual Futures — Prediction Markets Pivot to Full-Spectrum Derivatives Exchanges"
author: "CNBC / CoinDesk / Marketplace.org"
url: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/27/prediction-markets-prepare-to-invade-one-of-cryptos-biggest-and-riskiest-trades.html
date: 2026-04-27
domain: internet-finance
secondary_domains: []
format: news-synthesis
status: processed
processed_by: rio
processed_date: 2026-04-30
priority: high
tags: [prediction-markets, perpetual-futures, kalshi, polymarket, cftc, derivatives, dcm]
intake_tier: research-task
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
---

## Content

**Polymarket perps launch (April 21, 2026):** Polymarket rolled out perpetual futures on crypto assets (BTC, NVDA, others) with up to 10x leverage. Launched as part of its US DCM platform (via $112M QCEX acquisition). This is the first time a CFTC-registered prediction market platform has offered crypto perps to US users.

**Kalshi "Timeless" launch (April 27, 2026):** Kalshi launched its perpetual futures product ("Timeless") in New York, competing with Polymarket and targeting Coinbase, Robinhood, and Kraken's existing perps businesses.

**Market scale context:**
- Perps = 70%+ of all volume on centralized crypto exchanges (CoinGecko)
- 2025 perps trading volume: $61.7T nominal (29% increase from 2024)
- This dwarfs prediction market event contract volume by 1-2 orders of magnitude

**CFTC support:** Chairman Selig: "The prior administration failed to create a pathway for these markets to exist onshore. Under my leadership, the CFTC will use the tools at its disposal to onshore perpetual and other novel derivative products." Project Crypto (SEC-CFTC joint initiative, January 2026) supports compliant onshore trading.

**Regulatory questions:** Significant open questions remain about how CFTC will regulate perpetual futures specifically. Auto-deleveraging cascades (a feature of offshore perps) are why US regulators previously resisted.

**Competitive landscape:** Kalshi and Polymarket now compete with Coinbase, Robinhood, Kraken — all of which added prediction markets in the past year. The boundary between "prediction market" and "crypto exchange" is dissolving.

**Secondary source:** Blockhead (April 22): "Prediction Markets Are Becoming Crypto Perps Platforms"

**Secondary source:** Marketplace.org (April 22): "Kalshi, Polymarket to start offering 'perpetual futures' markets"

## Agent Notes

**Why this matters:** The DCM-registered prediction market platform model is structurally diverging from governance markets. Kalshi and Polymarket are becoming full-spectrum derivatives exchanges. This creates a three-way category split in the prediction market landscape: (1) regulated DCMs doing events + perps, (2) offshore decentralized platforms (Hyperliquid) doing events but blocking US users, (3) on-chain governance markets (MetaDAO) doing governance decisions only. MetaDAO is in a fundamentally different category.

**What surprised me:** The speed of the pivot — both platforms launched perps within 6 days of each other, clearly coordinated with CFTC signal. The prediction market "brand" is being used as regulatory cover for crypto derivatives, not just event contracts.

**What I expected but didn't find:** Any regulatory pushback from CFTC on the perps expansion. Selig is actively supporting it.

**KB connections:**
- [[permissionless leverage on metaDAO ecosystem tokens catalyzes trading volume and price discovery that strengthens governance by making futarchy markets more liquid]] — relevant but opposite direction: this is about DCM platforms getting leverage, not governance markets
- [[futarchy-based fundraising creates regulatory separation because there are no beneficial owners and investment decisions emerge from market forces not centralized control]] — the regulatory separation argument is stronger now that DCMs are clearly in a different category

**Extraction hints:**
1. "DCM-registered prediction market platforms converging on perpetual futures marks structural repositioning as full-spectrum derivatives exchanges, creating a three-way category split distinguishing regulated event platforms, offshore decentralized venues, and on-chain governance markets" [confidence: likely]
2. "The prediction market regulatory framework emerging in 2026 applies exclusively to centralized, DCM-registered platforms offering external event contracts — on-chain governance markets with endogenous settlement remain outside the enforcement perimeter not by accident but by categorical structural difference" [confidence: experimental]

**Context:** Polymarket perps launch came one week after Polymarket's CFTC-registered US platform opened. Kalshi "Timeless" launch came the same week Kalshi was filing amicus briefs in prediction market litigation. The pivot suggests these platforms see perps as a larger revenue opportunity than event contracts.

## Curator Notes
PRIMARY CONNECTION: [[futarchy-based fundraising creates regulatory separation because there are no beneficial owners and investment decisions emerge from market forces not centralized control]]
WHY ARCHIVED: Structural divergence between DCM event platforms and on-chain governance markets is now observable in platform strategy, not just legal theory — this is the empirical confirmation of the three-way category split
EXTRACTION HINT: The extractor should focus on the categorical structural divergence — not the competitive dynamics between Kalshi/Polymarket/Hyperliquid, but the implication for how on-chain governance markets like MetaDAO are now in a different category entirely
