--- title: "Kalshi Eyes 60 Stock Perps as Leverage Debate Heats Up" date: 2026-09-11 author: "Kathleen Kinder" featured_image: "https://coinlaw.io/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/kalshi-eyes-60-stock-perps.jpg" categories: - name: "Investments" url: "/investments.md" tags: - name: "News" url: "/tag/news.md" --- # Kalshi Eyes 60 Stock Perps as Leverage Debate Heats Up Kalshi plans to seek regulatory approval for the first regulated U.S. perpetual futures tied to single stocks, including Tesla, Apple and Nvidia, according to a 10th September 2026 report by The Wall Street Journal citing people familiar with the matter. ## Key Takeaways - Kalshi wants to offer leveraged, round-the-clock perpetual futures on individual U.S. stocks such as Tesla, Apple and Nvidia. - The planned lineup covers about 60 contracts tied to popular ETFs and to companies worth at least $100 billion. - Futures on individual stocks answer to both the SEC and the CFTC, so Kalshi needs two regulators on board. - Kalshi already runs U.S. perpetual futures on crypto and added gold and silver versions on Thursday. - Better Markets, through securities policy director Benjamin Schiffrin, warns that 24/7 leverage could cause heavy losses among individual investors. ## What We Know? The stock plan extends a product line that opened in late May, when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) [approved KalshiEX’s Bitcoin perpetual future](https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9240-26). Those crypto contracts quickly rose in volume. Kalshi followed with 24/7 gold and silver perpetuals, the first contracts of their kind in the U.S. The company said the metals contracts carry leverage of up to 15 times, per Benzinga. **Coinbase Global**, the largest U.S. crypto exchange, has separately filed paperwork that could help it list single-stock perps too. Perps, as traders call them, never expire. A trader can hold a leveraged position with no end date and trade it at any hour of the day or week. > Kalshi plans to seek U.S. regulatory approval for roughly 60 stock and ETF perpetual futures for 24/7 trading, prompting Citadel Securities to warn of market surveillance risks > > — Yellow Media (@YellowMedia\_HQ) [September 11, 2026](https://x.com/YellowMedia_HQ/status/2098406086361702437?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) ## Two Regulators Stand Between Kalshi and Launch Equities bring a hurdle the crypto and metals contracts didn’t face. The [SEC’s guide to broker-dealer registration](https://coinlaw.io/sec-and-cftc-regulations-on-cryptocurrencies-statistics/) says futures on individual securities are regulated jointly, as securities by the SEC and as futures by the CFTC, which means Kalshi would need both agencies involved before a Tesla or Nvidia contract goes live. Kalshi’s defense starts with leverage. The company argues its leverage is comparable to traditional futures and lower than many [offshore alternatives like Bitmex](https://coinlaw.io/bitmex-equity-perps-tokenized-stock-trading/), and chief executive Tarek Mansour has called perpetuals “**the purest form of trading**.” ## What We Don’t Know? The report relies on people familiar with the matter, and several basics remain open: - **When will Kalshi file with the SEC and the CFTC, and how long could a joint review take?** - **Which ETFs and companies fill out the lineup beyond Tesla, Apple and Nvidia?** - **What maximum leverage would single-stock perps carry, compared with the metals contracts?** - **How will contract prices track the underlying shares when regular stock trading is closed?** ## CoinLaw’s Takeaway The plan would pull a trade that grew up offshore into a venue U.S. regulators supervise. Kalshi’s pitch rests on that contrast: the same around-the-clock access [Hyperliquid perpetual traders](https://coinlaw.io/sp500-defi-hyperliquid-perpetual-launch/) already chase, paired with leverage the company describes as closer to traditional futures, on a lineup limited to popular ETFs and very large companies. Kalshi went from a crypto approval in May to metals contracts by September. Stock perps add a second agency, and the Better Markets objection about losses among individual investors is the argument a joint SEC and CFTC review is likely to test. Coinbase’s parallel filing means that review could shape stock perps at more than one U.S. platform.