CBOE weighs shift to perpetual futures amid Kalshi’s rapid growth

Rob Hocking, CBOE’s global head of derivatives, confirmed the exchange is exploring this pivot following the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s recent approval of perpetual futures for the prediction market operator Kalshi. While CBOE launched its continuous Bitcoin and Ether futures with 10-year expirations only last December, the firm is now weighing whether perpetual structures offer a more viable alternative in a landscape rapidly evolving under new regulatory precedents.

The industry tension is palpable. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has already taken legal action against the CFTC, alleging that the approval granted to Kalshi inflicts competitive injury on established exchanges. At the heart of this friction is the nature of perpetual futures—contracts that lack expiration dates and rely on funding payments to track underlying assets, a model that has become the gold standard for crypto derivatives.

Traditional operators are not just battling each other; they are contending with a broader shift toward decentralized finance. Decentralized exchanges have processed over $663 billion in perpetual volume over the last 30 days, with platforms like Hyperliquid capturing significant market share. As Coinbase expands its own perpetual offerings for stock indexes, the race to capture trading activity that once flourished exclusively in offshore or unregulated environments has entered a new, highly competitive phase.