Polymarket Gets CFTC OK to Offer Leveraged Perpetuals

Polymarket announced on April 21, 2026 that it will offer leveraged perpetual futures for cryptocurrencies, equities and commodities in the United States after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved the company to operate as a Designated Contract Market through a U.S. entity.

Perpetual futures have no expiration date, allowing traders to hold positions indefinitely. Early promotional material showed an interface with leverage selectors in the 7x to 10x range and tools for both long and short trades. Polymarket opened a waitlist for early access to trade assets including bitcoin and Nvidia with up to 10x leverage.

Polymarket indicated the perpetuals will operate within or alongside its regulated DCM framework to comply with federal derivatives laws. The product is in a pre-release phase: a landing page and waitlist are live, but the company has not published a fee schedule, funding rate methodology or a full list of supported instruments.

The platform highlighted 24/7 trading, which differs from the set hours of many stock exchanges. The announcement did not include a native token, airdrop or rewards program.

A rival exchange, Kalshi, has announced plans to offer perpetuals as well. Polymarket will compete with decentralized finance protocols that provide perpetuals and with firms in the regulated derivatives and brokerage sectors.

Polymarket began as a binary prediction market for elections, sports and global events. Perpetual futures allow traders to take directional, leveraged positions without a settlement date. Polymarket has not disclosed margin requirements, counterparty risk protections, funding rate calculations or geographic access; those details remain pending ahead of a broader rollout.