The Cheyenne, Wyoming-based exchange Kraken disclosed Monday that U.S. clients can now trade perpetual futures with no expiry alongside spot, margin and futures. For active traders, that means less tab juggling, fewer collateral headaches and one less excuse to maintain a half-dozen exchange accounts like a crypto-era circus act.

Perps Come Onshore

Perpetual futures, often called perps, are derivative contracts that allow traders to speculate on an asset’s price without an expiration date. Unlike traditional futures, they do not require traders to roll positions when a contract expires.

That feature has made perps a dominant force in crypto markets. Kraken said perpetuals accounted for more than $60 trillion in global trading volume in 2025, reflecting how central the product has become for traders chasing liquidity, leverage and continuous market exposure.

The catch, at least for U.S. traders, has been access. The U.S. market has historically been boxed out of much of the global perps trade, while offshore venues turned the product into a liquidity magnet.

Kraken is now trying to drag that market onshore, with perpetual futures offered through Bitnomial, the CFTC-licensed derivatives business acquired earlier this year by Payward, Kraken’s parent company.

One Account, One Counterparty

Bitnomial holds U.S. derivatives licenses across exchange, clearinghouse and brokerage operations, giving Kraken the regulatory structure to offer eligible U.S. clients perpetual futures inside the CFTC’s perimeter.

The practical pitch is simple: Traders can manage spot, margin, futures and perpetuals in Kraken Pro, while using one pool of collateral across futures and perps. In plain English, less capital gets parked in exchange limbo, and more of it can stay active.

Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward and Kraken, said the point is to put the full trading stack in one place.

“Spot, margin, futures and now perpetuals all live in the same account at Kraken,” Sethi remarked, adding that traders are better off dealing with one trusted venue than “a dozen they have to manage.”

John Palmer, Kraken’s global head of derivatives, framed the launch as a fix for fragmented trading.

“For traders, the friction was never just getting access to perpetuals, but being forced to hold them on one venue and the rest of the book on another,” Palmer explained.

What Traders Need to Know

Perpetuals remain powerful, but they are not a toy for the bored and overleveraged. Funding rates help keep perp prices close to spot markets, with longs typically paying shorts when the perp trades above spot, and shorts paying longs when it trades below spot.

Leverage can amplify gains, but it can also vaporize margin quickly. A trader using 10x leverage on bitcoin can see a small market move turn into a very large problem with ugly speed.

Kraken’s launch gives U.S. traders a regulated venue for a product that has long defined global crypto derivatives. The opportunity is greater access. The risk is the same old perps lesson: The market does not care how confident anyone feels.

Perpetual futures with no expiry are available now to eligible U.S. clients on Kraken Pro, though eligibility and product access vary by jurisdiction.