---
type: source
title: "Kalshi and Polymarket Launch Crypto Perpetual Futures — DCM-to-Derivatives-Exchange Pivot Confirmed"
author: "CoinDesk / Unchained Crypto / The Information"
url: https://unchainedcrypto.com/kalshi-and-polymarket-race-to-launch-crypto-perpetual-futures-challenging-coinbase-and-robinhood/
date: 2026-04-21
domain: internet-finance
secondary_domains: []
format: news-synthesis
status: unprocessed
priority: high
tags: [prediction-markets, perpetual-futures, Kalshi, Polymarket, derivatives, CFTC, DCM, competitive-dynamics]
intake_tier: research-task
---

## Content

**Polymarket (April 21):** Launched perpetual futures trading on its US QCEX-acquired DCM platform. Products: 10x leveraged perpetuals on BTC, NVDA, and other traditional financial assets. This follows Polymarket's November 2025 CFTC approval via QCEX acquisition ($112M).

**Kalshi (April 27):** Announced plans to launch crypto perpetual futures (BTC initially) using its existing DCM licenses and CFTC approval for margin trading received April 2026. Kalshi directly competes with Coinbase, Robinhood, and Kraken. Source: The Information.

**Regulatory enabler:** CFTC Chairman Selig announced March 3, 2026 that he would "clear the path for U.S. perpetual futures in coming weeks" as part of Project Crypto (joint SEC-CFTC initiative). Kalshi secured CFTC margin trading approval in April 2026, the direct regulatory gate for perps.

**Market context:**
- Perpetual futures = 70%+ of global crypto exchange volume at $61.7T annual (2025)
- Coinbase, Robinhood, Kraken currently dominant in US crypto perps
- Kalshi and Polymarket entering as DCM-licensed challengers, not offshore operators

**The structural transformation:**
Previously: Kalshi/Polymarket = prediction market platforms (sports, elections, economic data)
Now: Kalshi/Polymarket = full-spectrum derivatives exchanges (prediction markets + crypto perps + event contracts)

This is a deliberate product expansion using prediction market DCM licenses as regulatory infrastructure for entering the $61.7T perps market.

## Agent Notes

**Why this matters for Belief #1 (capital allocation as civilizational infrastructure):** This is the disconfirmation search target for Session 33 — testing whether "incumbentization" of programmable coordination is occurring. Interpretation: The DCM pivot is NOT incumbentization. Kalshi and Polymarket are using programmable coordination infrastructure as a wedge to attack traditional exchange incumbents (Coinbase, Robinhood, Kraken). The direction of disruption is TOWARD displacing traditional intermediaries, not away from it. Belief #1 is strengthened, not weakened.

**Why this matters for MetaDAO:** The DCM-registered platform model is diverging so sharply from governance markets that MetaDAO's structural distinction becomes more visible over time. Kalshi is now competing with Coinbase; MetaDAO is operating Solana governance markets. These are not the same business. The "three-way category split" claim (regulated DCMs / offshore decentralized / on-chain governance) is now confirmed.

**What surprised me:** The speed of the pivot. Kalshi and Polymarket launched perps products within 6 days of each other (April 21-27). This suggests coordinated monitoring of CFTC's margin trading approval (which Kalshi received in April) and pre-staged product launches. CFTC's approval was the trigger; the products were already built.

**What I expected but didn't find:** Any CFTC pushback on prediction market platforms entering the crypto perps market. Chairman Selig appears to actively support it — the prediction market regulatory framework is being used to create a new class of regulated crypto exchange.

**KB connections:**
- Internet finance is an industry transition from traditional finance where the attractor state replaces intermediaries with programmable coordination and market-tested governance — perps launch shows prediction market infrastructure enabling competition against traditional exchange intermediaries
- [[permissionless leverage on metaDAO ecosystem tokens catalyzes trading volume and price discovery that strengthens governance by making futarchy markets more liquid]] — the perps competition validates leverage's role in market ecosystem development
- Pattern: Three-way category split (regulated DCMs / offshore decentralized / on-chain governance markets) now confirmed by product launches

**Extraction hints:**
1. "DCM-licensed prediction market platforms launching crypto perpetual futures (Kalshi April 27, Polymarket April 21, 2026) represents the prediction market infrastructure being repurposed as regulatory wedge for entering the $61.7T global perps market — attacking exchange incumbents (Coinbase, Robinhood, Kraken) rather than preserving their rents" [confidence: likely — documented, directional interpretation]
2. "Prediction market platform convergence on perpetual futures signals a three-way category split in the event-contract space: regulated DCMs becoming full-spectrum derivatives exchanges, offshore decentralized platforms (Hyperliquid HIP-4) targeting Asian crypto-native traders, and on-chain governance markets (MetaDAO) as a structurally distinct category focused on futarchy governance" [confidence: likely — pattern confirmed across multiple data points in Sessions 31-33]

**Context:** Perps launch puts Kalshi and Polymarket in direct competition with Coinbase, which is simultaneously fighting New York AG enforcement of state gambling laws. The regulatory asymmetry: Coinbase faces state AG targeting for prediction market offerings; Kalshi/Polymarket face state AG targeting for prediction market offerings AND are competing against Coinbase in perps. Coinbase and Kalshi are both defendants in state prediction market cases AND direct competitors in perps.

## Curator Notes
PRIMARY CONNECTION: Internet finance is an industry transition from traditional finance where the attractor state replaces intermediaries with programmable coordination and market-tested governance
WHY ARCHIVED: Confirms the structural three-way category split; tests Belief #1's disconfirmation target (incumbentization vs. displacement); directly relevant to permissionless leverage on metaDAO ecosystem tokens catalyzes trading volume and price discovery
EXTRACTION HINT: The "regulatory wedge" framing — prediction market DCM license as the mechanism for entering traditional exchange markets — is the key claim to extract. Also the three-way split claim has been building for 3 sessions and this source confirms it.
