01The basics
What are Perpetuals?
Perpetual futures let you trade the price of an asset like Bitcoin without owning it. They use leverage, and they never expire.
Perpetuals track an asset's price. Go long if you expect it to rise, short if you expect it to fall. Unlike a traditional futures contract that expires on a set date, Perpetuals have no expiry — you hold the position as long as your collateral can back it, and close it whenever you choose. No crypto ever changes hands.
Since perpetual futures never expire and require less upfront capital than traditional futures, they can be a simpler and cheaper way to open a position. With low minimums and leverage, you can control larger position sizes. Leverage, explained later in this guide, does increase the risk.
How Perpetuals compare to spot trading
Spot trading means owning the real asset directly. Perpetuals trade the price instead, with leverage, the ability to go short, an 8-hour funding rate, and built-in liquidation all part of how the contract works.
| 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 Perpetuals compare to prediction markets
Kalshi offers both. They are built for different jobs. Perpetuals are a leveraged position on price direction. Prediction markets are a position on whether a specific event resolves yes or no.
| 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
The first decision: long or short
Every Perpetuals trade starts with a direction — you are taking a side on which way the price will move.
Long — you profit if the price rises. The closest equivalent to "buying," with leverage applied and no asset held.
Short — you profit if the price falls. Not possible in standard spot trading, where gains require prices to rise.
03Sizing
Leverage & margin
Leverage determines how much exposure your collateral controls, which amplifies both potential gain and potential loss.
To open a position, you deposit collateral (also called margin). At 5× leverage, $1,000 of margin controls a $5,000 position — a 10% move in the asset becomes a 50% move in your collateral, 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
Isolated margin assigns collateral to one position. If that position is liquidated, only the assigned collateral is at risk — the rest of your account is unaffected.
04Controls
Risk controls
Two order types are most commonly used to keep a leveraged trade under control. Both are set when you open the position.
Take profit
A take profit closes your position automatically when the price reaches a specified gain target, locking in the gain so a subsequent reversal cannot give it back.
Bitcoin rises from $50,000 to $60,000. The position closes automatically at the take-profit level — gain locked at +$10,000.
Stop loss
A stop loss closes your position automatically if the price moves against you past a specified level, capping the most you can lose on the trade. Widely used on leveraged positions because losses compound faster than on unleveraged ones.
Bitcoin falls from $50,000 to $40,000. The position closes automatically at the stop-loss level — loss capped at −$10,000.
Both can be set independently and modified while the position is open. Without them, a leveraged position can lose value faster than you can react in a volatile market.
05The mechanism
The funding rate
Because Perpetuals never expire, there is no settlement date to pull the contract price back toward the underlying asset. The funding rate does it — a payment between longs and shorts, charged every 8 hours.
The payment direction depends on the gap between the Perpetuals price and the underlying market price.
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.
On Kalshi, funding is charged every 8 hours and capped at ±2% per period.
06The risk
Liquidation
Liquidation is managed by your broker and occurs when losses on a position consume the collateral down to a minimum threshold — the maintenance margin. The broker closes the position automatically to prevent the account from going negative.
The higher the leverage, the smaller the adverse price move required to trigger liquidation. Liquidation doesn't wait for your collateral to reach zero — the broker closes the position once it falls to the maintenance margin, leaving a small buffer so the account can't go negative. Liquidation is calculated against the mark price — an aggregated reference drawn from multiple spot markets — which reduces the risk of liquidation from brief price spikes on a single exchange.
Assume a $1,000 deposit and open a 5× long on Bitcoin at $50,000, which gives you $5,000 of exposure. Bitcoin positions require roughly a 13% maintenance margin — about $650, since 13% × $5,000 ≈ $650. So if Bitcoin falls about 7% (to ~$46,500), your position is liquidated, while that ~$650 buffer still remains.
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.
Leverage does not change how the underlying market moves — it changes how much of your collateral is at stake with each move. With isolated margin, the loss on a liquidated position is limited to the collateral assigned to that specific position.
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 Perpetuals 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.