On Tuesday, October 20, 2026, Webull said it has partnered with prediction-market operator Kalshi to offer perpetual futures to US customers from November, starting with cryptocurrencies. The announcement follows a regulatory milestone from earlier this year: on May 29, 2026, the CFTC approved KalshiEX's bitcoin perpetual futures contract, a no-expiration perpetual contract — distinct from earlier long-dated perpetual-style futures — and that design is now set to appear inside a mainstream retail brokerage app.

Why It Matters

The structure separates three jobs that a single trading venue often combines. Webull acts as the distribution layer: customers will access the contracts through their existing Webull Futures accounts, initially as eligible US customers approved for futures trading, and futures are offered by Webull Futures LLC, a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant and NFA member, according to Webull's official release. The contracts themselves will list on KalshiEX LLC, a CFTC-regulated Designated Contract Market, and clear through Kalshi Klear LLC, a CFTC-regulated Derivatives Clearing Organization, as the release describes. The brokerage does not hold the order book; the exchange runs the market, and the clearinghouse interposes itself between the clearing participants, while customers access the market through their futures broker. In practice, the product arrives inside the account, margining and compliance systems that futures customers already use, rather than through a separate venue they would have to join and fund from scratch.

The clearinghouse handles central settlement obligations, while risk-management responsibilities span the exchange, clearinghouse and broker. Central clearing places settlement obligations at the clearinghouse level, while margin and liquidation responsibilities follow the applicable exchange, clearinghouse and broker rules. The emphasis on rule-based risk handling runs through the announcement: Tanmay Sheth, Managing Director of the FCM, Futures and Prediction Markets at Webull, said the aim is to give users clear visibility into margin requirements, funding rates, leverage and liquidation levels, in the company release. Anthony Denier, Group President and US CEO of Webull, said perpetual futures' annual volume reached "more than $90 trillion in 2025," a claim carried by both Reuters and the release — a sense of the scale that makes a retail brokerage want this product on its shelf.

The instrument itself also changes how a position is managed over time. A perpetual future has no fixed expiration; instead, a periodic funding mechanism helps keep the contract price aligned with the underlying asset, replacing the expiry and roll management that dated futures require, Webull's release explains. The same design carries obligations: positions are subject to periodic funding payments, and they face automatic liquidation if margin falls below maintenance requirements, the release notes. The rollout begins with Bitcoin and other crypto assets, with broader availability anticipated before year-end, and additional products beyond crypto are planned, subject to regulatory review and exchange listing requirements, per Reuters and the release. For a first-time holder, the practical shift is that the position is not rolled on a calendar; it is monitored against funding and maintenance margin instead.

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