01The basics
What are Perpetuals?
Perpetual futures let you trade the price of assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and more without ever owning them.
Instead of buying Bitcoin and hoping it goes up, you take a position on which direction the price will move. Go long if you think it'll rise. Go short if you think it'll fall. There's no expiry date, so you can exit whenever you want.
How is this different from buying crypto?
When you buy Bitcoin, you own it outright. You can only profit if the price goes up. With Perpetuals, you never own the asset — you're trading price direction. That means you can profit when the market moves up or down.
| Spot trading | Perpetuals | |
|---|---|---|
| Own the asset | Yes | No |
| Profit when price falls | No | Yes — by going short |
| Leverage | No | Yes |
| Expiration | None | None |
| Forced closure | No | Yes — via liquidation |
How is this different from prediction markets?
Kalshi offers both, but they're built for different purposes. Perpetuals are for trading price direction – whether Bitcoin goes up or down. Prediction markets are for specific events — whether something happens or not, like if a candidate will win an election.
| Perpetuals | Prediction markets | |
|---|---|---|
| What you trade | Price direction of an asset | Probability of a specific event |
| Expiry | No fixed end date | Resolves YES or NO on a date |
| Settlement | Continuous; funding keeps it aligned | One-time, when the event occurs |
| Leverage | Yes | No |
| Common use | Directional exposure to crypto price | Outcomes of real-world events |
| Regulation | CFTC-regulated | CFTC-regulated |
02Direction
Your first decision: Long or short?
Every Perpetuals trade starts with one question: which way do you think the price is going?
Go long if you think the price will rise. If Bitcoin goes from $50,000 to $60,000, you profit.
Go short if you think the price will fall. If Bitcoin drops from $50,000 to $40,000, you profit.
03Sizing
Leverage & margin
Leverage lets you control a larger position than the amount you put in. That amount is called your margin, or your stake in the trade.
At 2×, a $1,000 margin controls a $2,000 position. At 5×, that same $1,000 controls a $5,000 position.
The higher your leverage, the more your margin moves with every price change. At 5×, a 10% move becomes a 50% move on your $1,000 — in either direction.
The leverage examples are mathematical in nature and are not intended to imply that customers have achieved or may achieve similar results.
Isolated margin
The margin you put into one trade is separate from the rest of your account. If that trade is liquidated, only that margin is at risk — the rest of your account is unaffected.
However, when extreme market conditions with sudden price gaps or low liquidity occur, your position may close at a worse price than the liquidation level. In some cases, this may leave your account with a negative balance.
04Controls
Risk controls
On a leveraged position, prices can move fast. These two tools let you define your target gain or maximum loss for your trade before the market moves.
Take profit
Locks in your gain. You set a percentage gain target before you open a trade. When the price hits it, your position closes automatically and the profit is secured.
Bitcoin rises from $50,000 to $60,000. The position closes automatically at the take-profit level — gain locked at +$10,000.
Stop loss
Caps how much you can lose. You set a percentage loss limit before you open a trade. If the price moves against you by that amount, your position closes automatically.
Bitcoin falls from $50,000 to $40,000. The position closes automatically at the stop-loss level — loss capped at −$10,000.
Both tools can be set when you open a position and adjusted any time while it's open. On a leveraged trade, using both means you don't need to watch the market constantly.
05The mechanism
The funding rate
Perpetuals on Kalshi track Bitcoin's price, but they're traded separately from Bitcoin itself and never expire.
This means the two prices can drift apart when there are significantly more longs than shorts, or vice versa. The funding rate corrects this by charging a small fee to whichever side is larger every 8 hours.
You can see the real-time funding rate of each perpetual directly on Kalshi's product pages. For example, the current BTC funding rate is .
On Kalshi, the funding fee is capped at 2% of your position per 8-hour window.
See a visual of how it works
Perpetuals trade 1% above Bitcoin's market price. Longs pay shorts — if you hold a short, you receive the funding payment. Holding a long becomes slightly costlier, pulling the contract price back down.
Perpetuals trade 1% below Bitcoin's market price. Shorts pay longs — if you hold a long, you receive the funding payment. Holding a short becomes slightly costlier, pulling the contract price back up.
Perpetuals and Bitcoin prices match. No funding payment between sides.
How is the funding rate calculated?
The funding rate is calculated using the average premium/discount across the full 8-hour window, weighted toward the end. For example, a sustained 1% premium (like the Premium scenario above) produces a 1% funding rate — so a $10,000 long position would pay $100 to the short side for that period.
06The risk
Liquidation
If a trade moves against you far enough that your margin runs out, your position is automatically closed. This is called liquidation, and it's managed by the broker.
You can think of your margin as a cushion. Every time the price moves against you, the cushion shrinks. The broker sets a minimum cushion requirement, called the maintenance margin. When it gets too thin, your position is automatically closed before your account can go negative.
You put in $1,000 at 5× leverage, opening a long on Bitcoin at $50,000. Your $1,000 now controls a $5,000 position. Now let's say the broker requires a 13% maintenance margin, which works out to roughly $650 for this position (13% of $5,000), so liquidation happens before your cushion hits zero. In this case, a price drop of around 7% to ~$46,500 is enough to trigger it.
See a visual of how it works
Each column is your $1,000 at a Bitcoin price — and at 5×, every 1% move is 5% of it. Based on the maintenance margin in this example, $650 is your floor: the green cushion above it drains as Bitcoin falls, and hitting the floor triggers liquidation.
The broker closes the position at the maintenance margin — about $650 (13% × $5,000) still in the account. Your equity wouldn't reach $0 until $40,000 (a 20% drop), but liquidation aims to close it first before hitting $0.
The liquidation example is mathematical in nature and is not intended to imply that customers have achieved or may achieve similar results.
The higher your leverage, the thinner your cushion. At 5×, it only takes a 7% drop. At 10×, even less.
The best way to avoid liquidation is to set a stop loss so your position closes on your terms before it gets there.
What you can trade
Kalshi offers CFTC-approved Perpetuals across major cryptocurrencies, each with its own maximum leverage.
BitcoinBTC5.8×
EthereumETH4.4×
ChainlinkLINK3.4×
XRPXRP2.7×
SolanaSOL2.6×
HyperliquidHYPE2.1×Leverage values reflect current API data and may change without notice.
Frequently asked
How are Perpetual Futures different from buying crypto?expand_more
What is the difference between long and short?expand_more
What is the funding rate?expand_more
What is liquidation?expand_more
Can I lose more than I deposit?expand_more
Are there required minimums?expand_more
Are Kalshi's Perpetuals regulated?expand_more
Ready to trade Perpetuals?
Kalshi's crypto Perpetuals are live — regulated, onshore, with transparent funding rates and no expiry.