There’s a landgrab underway in the U.S. for perpetual futures, one of the biggest and riskiest parts of the crypto trading world — and prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket reportedly want a piece of it .

Perpetual futures, better known by users as "perps," are futures contracts without expiration dates that have seen explosive growth since President Trump returned to office. Before that, perps — which can offer up to 100x leverage — didn't really exist in the U.S., a big reason offshore exchanges like Binance and the now defunct FTX grew so dominant.

Today, perps account for more than 70% of all the volume on centralized crypto exchanges, according to CoinGecko. In 2025, perps trading volume climbed to a nominal $61.7 trillion, a 29% increase from 2024, according to data from CryptoQuant.…