Plus500 Goes Live With Kalshi Perpetual Futures: What It Means for Traders

Perpetual futures spent most of their life on offshore crypto exchanges, out of reach of US regulators. That has been changing fast this year, and on Wednesday, 28 October 2026, Plus500 added another piece to the picture. The FTSE 250-listed broker group said its US futures commission merchant (FCM) has started offering Kalshi perpetual futures, making it, in its own words, the first FCM apart from Kalshi Prime, the exchange's own brokerage, to do so.

For most traders the headline matters less than the detail underneath it: who can actually trade these contracts through Plus500, how they are cleared, and why a product that used to sit outside US oversight is now listed on a CFTC-regulated exchange.

Key takeaways

• Plus500's US FCM now offers perpetual futures listed on Kalshi, a CFTC-regulated US exchange.
• Plus500 says it is the first FCM, excluding Kalshi Prime, to make Kalshi perps available to its clients.
• Access is through Plus500's B2B and B2B2C channels: institutional partners, and the brokers and apps that run their customers' trading on its systems.
• Plus500 clears the contracts itself as a clearing member of Kalshi Klear, Kalshi's clearinghouse.
• The product is new to regulated US markets and still faces a legal challenge from CME Group over how it was approved.

The announcement in brief

What perpetual futures actually are

A normal futures contract has an expiry date. If you want to keep your position, you have to close it and open a new one in a later month, which traders call rolling over. Perpetual futures skip that step. They never expire, so a position can stay open for as long as the trader keeps enough margin behind it.

On crypto venues, perps typically use regular funding payments between buyers and sellers to keep the contract price close to the underlying market. The details differ from exchange to exchange, so before trading any perp it is worth reading the contract specifications to see exactly how funding, margin and settlement work on that venue.

Until this year, US traders had no way to trade perps on a US-regulated exchange. That changed in May 2026, when Kalshi launched what it describes as the first CFTC-regulated perpetual futures contract in the US. It started with crypto and has since added commodities and indices.

Demand has been strong. According to Finance Magnates, Kalshi said its perps traded more than $5.5 billion in their first two weeks, and its crypto perps had reached about $16.1 billion in volume by late July.

Who can trade them through Plus500

This is the part that is easy to miss. The announcement says the contracts are available through Plus500's B2B and B2B2C channels. In practice that means:

• B2B: institutional clients that use Plus500's US futures infrastructure directly.
• B2B2C: partner brokers, fintechs and apps that run their own customers' trading on Plus500's systems. Those customers reach Kalshi perps through the partner's app, while Plus500 handles execution and clearing behind the scenes.

So a US trader could end up trading Kalshi perps through a partner's app without ever seeing the Plus500 name. The announcement does not describe a launch on Plus500's own retail CFD app. And if you trade with Plus500 outside the US, this news concerns its US futures business only. Nothing in it points to a change in the CFD products Plus500 offers through its entities elsewhere.

Why the clearing detail matters

Plus500 says it executes, routes, clears and manages risk on its own technology. Rather than relying on another firm, it clears the perps directly as a clearing member of Kalshi Klear, the exchange's clearinghouse.

A clearinghouse sits between the two sides of every trade and manages the risk that one side cannot pay. Being a direct clearing member generally means a firm posts margin and takes responsibility for its clients' positions at the clearinghouse level. That takes capital and serious risk-management systems, which helps explain why Kalshi picked a partner with existing futures infrastructure.

Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour put it this way: "Following our successful collaboration in prediction markets, Plus500 was the natural choice to support our expansion into perpetual futures."

How this fits Plus500's US push

Perps are the latest step in a busy year for Plus500 in the US. The group already clears Kalshi's prediction markets and, according to Finance Magnates, began clearing event contracts last December for the prediction markets platform backed by CME Group and FanDuel.

Plus500 CEO David Zruia called the launch "another significant milestone in a year of excellent progress in the US for Plus500", adding that the arrival of perps on a fully regulated US exchange "is a significant boost for the whole industry."

The numbers show why the push matters to the business. Plus500's non-OTC products, which include its US futures operations, made up about 16% of revenue in the first nine months of 2026, according to its third-quarter update. Most of the rest still comes from CFDs. Press reports also say the group is building a US "super-app" for the first quarter of 2027 and is buying US broker Hedge Capital Markets, pending approval from FINRA.

First, but not alone for long

Plus500 is first to go live, but others are close behind. Webull said on 20 October that eligible US customers will get access to Kalshi-listed crypto perps through Webull Futures accounts from November, also cleared through Kalshi Klear. Crypto platforms have also reached US traders by other routes, with Coinbase offering perpetual-style futures in the US.

For traders, more providers usually means more competition on fees, margin and platform features. Once several options are live, those are the things worth comparing carefully.

The legal question hanging over perps

There is one risk worth flagging. CME Group is suing the CFTC in federal court over the May approval of Kalshi's bitcoin perpetual, arguing that the contract is really a swap and should be regulated as one, as reported by Finance Magnates. The case has not been decided. A ruling against the approval could change how these products are offered or who can trade them, so keep an eye on it if you plan to use them.

What traders should check before trading perps

• Know who holds your account. If you trade through an app, find out which FCM carries your account and confirm it on the National Futures Association's BASIC register.
• Read the contract specs. Look at how margin, funding and liquidation work on the specific contract, not just how perps work in general.
• Respect leverage. A position that never expires can be held for a long time, but losses can build just as fast as gains, and funding costs add up the longer you hold.
• Do not confuse perps with CFDs. Kalshi perps are exchange-traded futures cleared through a clearinghouse. A CFD is a contract with your broker. The protections, costs and rules are different.
• Compare before you commit. Use the BrokerBazaar broker comparison to look at regulation, costs and trust signals side by side, or read our Plus500 broker profile.

Frequently asked questions

What are Kalshi perpetual futures?

They are futures contracts with no expiry date, listed on Kalshi, a CFTC-regulated US exchange. Kalshi launched its first perp in May 2026 and now offers them on crypto, commodities and indices.

Is Plus500 really the first to offer them?

Plus500 says it is the first FCM, excluding Kalshi Prime (Kalshi's own brokerage), to make Kalshi perps available to its clients. Webull has announced plans to offer them from November.

Can I trade Kalshi perps on the Plus500 app?

The announcement says the contracts are available through Plus500's B2B and B2B2C channels, meaning institutional clients and partner platforms. It does not describe a launch on Plus500's own retail CFD app.

Are Kalshi perps available to traders outside the US?

This launch is part of Plus500's US futures business on a US exchange. It does not change the CFD products Plus500 offers in other countries.

Are perpetual futures risky?

Yes. They are leveraged products and you can lose money quickly. Funding payments and margin calls can also add to your costs over time.

Our take

This is a meaningful step for regulated perps in the US. An established, exchange-listed broker group clearing these contracts directly gives the product more weight with institutional partners, and Plus500's partner model means perps could reach traders through many different apps. The bigger open question is legal: until the CME challenge is settled, the product's long-term shape is not fully certain. We will keep watching and update this piece as more providers go live.

Sources: Plus500 regulatory announcement, 28 October 2026; Finance Magnates, 28 October 2026. This article is for information only and is not financial advice. Trading futures, CFDs and other leveraged products carries a high risk of losing money.