Kraken has rolled out perpetual futures for eligible American clients through its CFTC-compliant derivatives arm, marking a significant expansion of its US offerings. The product, which generated over $60 trillion in global crypto trading volume in 2025, is now accessible on Kraken Pro alongside spot, margin, and traditional futures.
The exchange announced on June 15 that qualified US traders can use a single Kraken Pro account to manage multiple trading strategies without switching platforms. Perpetual futures, which never expire and allow indefinite position holding, have become the dominant crypto derivative due to continuous trading and funding rate mechanisms that keep prices aligned with underlying assets.
Kraken leveraged its acquisition of Bitnomial, a CFTC-licensed derivatives platform, to offer this service. Bitnomial holds exchange, clearinghouse, and brokerage licenses, enabling Kraken to operate within US regulatory frameworks. Traders can now use a unified collateral pool for perpetual futures and other derivatives, eliminating the need to move assets between separate venues.
Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward and Kraken, emphasized that consolidating spot, margin, futures, and perpetual contracts into one account simplifies capital management and reduces operational friction. John Palmer, Kraken’s global head of derivatives, noted that previously traders had to manage perpetuals and other positions on different platforms, but now they can access everything through a single counterparty.
This launch follows a similar move by Coinbase, which received approval to offer global crypto perpetual futures to US users just days earlier. Coinbase’s CEO Brian Armstrong stated that the approval would connect American traders to offshore liquidity via Deribit, a derivatives exchange acquired for $2.9 billion. Both developments reflect a shift in US regulatory attitudes, as authorities begin permitting access to products historically concentrated on overseas platforms under compliance requirements.