Kalshi’s proposal to introduce crypto-style perpetual futures for the physical oil market has sparked immediate backlash from established commodity exchanges and traders. On October 20, the prediction-market platform filed for a NYMEX-linked WTI perpetual contract, dubbed WTIPERP. Just two days later, a coalition of legacy exchanges, including CME and ICE, urged U.S. regulators to block the product before it launches.
The WTIPERP contract would operate without an expiry date, allowing traders to hold positions indefinitely without rolling them into new contracts each month. To maintain alignment with the conventional oil market, Kalshi plans to calculate its reference price using two nearby NYMEX WTI futures. Daily funding payments would help keep WTIPERP’s trading price close to this reference. The contract would follow standard oil-futures trading hours, including closures over weekends and holidays, and would represent 100 barrels, one-tenth of a standard oil future.
Despite Kalshi’s efforts to address potential concerns, the Commodity Markets Council, which includes CME, NYMEX, and ICE Futures US, has strongly opposed the proposal. In a letter sent after Kalshi’s filing, the council warned that oil perpetuals could threaten market integrity and urged the CFTC to withhold approval. The council also raised concerns about U.S. traders using VPNs to access offshore commodity platforms, calling for regulatory cooperation to restrict such access.
Kalshi maintains that WTIPERP would still reflect conditions in the physical oil market due to its reference price being derived from dated futures. The company also ruled out weekend trading, addressing a concern that recently led CME to shelve its own round-the-clock oil contract. However, the industry’s opposition highlights the deep-seated resistance to disrupting the traditional oil futures market.