Polymarket Enters Leveraged Derivatives With 67-Market Perps Launch, But U.S. Traders Are Locked Out

Key Takeaways

• Polymarket's new Perps product launched with 10 initial markets and expanded to 67 within hours, covering crypto, commodities, equity indices, and individual stocks.
• Leverage caps vary by asset class: crypto, major indices, oil, gold, and silver allow up to 20x, while individual equities—including 36 listed names—are capped at 10x.
• The hourly funding rate, which keeps perpetual contracts anchored to spot prices, is capped at 4% in either direction.
• U.S. users are excluded from the main product due to a 2022 CFTC settlement that fined Polymarket $1.4 million for operating an unregistered swaps facility.

Polymarket, the prediction market platform that gained widespread attention during the 2024 U.S. presidential election, opened a perpetual futures product on September 3 that extends its platform well beyond binary event contracts. The launch reached 67 available markets within hours of going live, yet the company's own terms bar American users from placing orders.

Numbers at a Glance

Markets at launch vs. hours later

10 → 67

Polymarket started Perps with 10 contracts and expanded to 67 within hours, signaling rapid asset onboarding as a competitive differentiator.

CFTC settlement fine

$1.4 million

This 2022 penalty, which also required Polymarket to close noncompliant contracts, is the legal foundation for the current U.S. user exclusion policy.

Maximum leverage offered

20x

Applied to crypto, S&P 500, oil, gold, and silver contracts; individual equities are capped at half that level.

Kalshi CFTC approval date

May 29

Kalshi received CFTC approval for Bitcoin perpetual futures more than three months before Polymarket's global Perps launch, giving it first-mover status in the U.S. onshore market.

From Binary Bets to Continuous Contracts: What Perps Actually Change

Polymarket built its reputation on simple yes-or-no contracts that pay out a fixed amount once an event concludes. Perpetual futures work on an entirely different logic: they track an asset's price in real time, carry no expiration date, and use an hourly funding rate to keep the contract's price aligned with the underlying spot market. That funding rate can swing up to 4% per hour in either direction, meaning the cost of holding a position can shift meaningfully within a single trading session.

The maintenance margin is set at half the maximum leverage ratio. That relationship means a trader using full 20x leverage on a crypto or index contract needs only a small adverse price move before the position is eligible for liquidation. For the 10x equity contracts covering names like Tesla, Nvidia (NVDA), Apple (AAPL), and Coinbase (COIN), the margin buffer is proportionally wider, but the same structural logic applies. Polymarket previewed a version of this product in April with a 10x cap before raising it to 20x for the official launch.

Regulatory History Shapes the Competitive Map

Polymarket's exclusion of U.S. traders is not a business decision made in isolation—it reflects the direct outcome of a 2022 CFTC enforcement action. The regulator found the company had operated an unregistered swaps facility and imposed a $1.4 million fine while ordering noncompliant contracts to be wound down. Polymarket has since re-entered the U.S. market through a separate CFTC-regulated exchange called Polymarket US, but that entity operates under tighter constraints and does not offer the new Perps product.

Rival prediction market Kalshi secured CFTC approval for a Bitcoin perpetual futures contract on May 29, positioning itself as the first platform to offer an onshore perpetual product in the United States. Kalshi has since filed for perpetuals covering a dozen additional altcoins and a copper contract. That regulatory head start is a meaningful structural advantage for U.S.-based traders who cannot access Polymarket's global offering.

The longer-term competitive pressure may come from Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange that the source describes as already dominant in on-chain perpetuals trading. According to the source, President Donald Trump has publicly stated that Hyperliquid is working with the CFTC to gain access to U.S. traders, and a Bloomberg report cited negotiations between Hyperliquid and Kraken's parent company Payward toward that goal.

InvestorStack Lens

Polymarket's rapid expansion to 67 markets signals an intent to compete on breadth and speed, but the U.S. exclusion means the platform's addressable trader base for Perps is structurally limited until and unless regulatory standing changes. The more telling dynamic may be competitive: if Hyperliquid secures CFTC access as reported, the dominant on-chain perpetuals venue would enter the regulated U.S. market, compressing the window in which Kalshi holds its first-mover advantage. Observers should treat any CFTC decision on Hyperliquid as a material development for the entire prediction-and-perps landscape, not just one platform.

What Could Challenge This View

Polymarket's claim of offering the deepest liquidity and lowest fees in crypto perps has not been independently verified in the source. If actual liquidity at launch is thin or fees are not meaningfully lower than established venues, the platform's ability to attract active derivatives traders—especially outside the U.S.—could be limited regardless of market breadth. A large number of listed markets is not equivalent to liquid markets.

What to Watch Next

• Whether CFTC grants Hyperliquid access to U.S. traders and on what timeline, as this would directly pressure Kalshi's first-mover position.
• Whether Polymarket US receives regulatory authorization to offer any form of the Perps product to American users.
• How quickly Kalshi's pending filings for altcoin and copper perpetuals receive CFTC decisions.
• Whether Polymarket's 67-market count grows further or contracts based on liquidity and regulatory constraints in specific jurisdictions.
• Whether the hourly funding rate cap of 4% proves sufficient to maintain contract-to-spot anchoring during high-volatility periods across the listed asset classes.