TL;DR: KuCoin announced five new USDT-margined perpetual contracts for October 21, including products tracking Goldman Sachs shares and the leveraged MSTU ETF. The contracts offer up to 20x leverage in supported markets.

KuCoin is extending its derivatives menu further into traditional financial assets with five contracts scheduled for launch on Wednesday.

The exchange’s official listing notice names URNMUSDT, GSUSDT, MSTUUSDT, FWDIUSDT and USDEXUSDT. It sets a 09:00 UTC October 21 start and advertises leverage of up to 20 times, subject to regional availability.

Although KuCoin groups the products under a stock-index label, the disclosed references include individual companies and exchange-traded funds. They cover the Sprott Uranium Miners ETF, Goldman Sachs, the T-Rex 2X Long MSTR Daily Target ETF, Forward Industries and StablecoinX.

Price Exposure Without Share Ownership

A perpetual contract provides exposure to movements in its reference price. Buying one does not mean acquiring the underlying share or fund unit, and the economic result depends on the derivative’s own terms.

That distinction becomes particularly important for MSTU. The reference fund itself targets leveraged daily exposure to Strategy shares. A leveraged contract tracking that fund adds another layer of sensitivity; it is not equivalent to simply holding a conventional unleveraged stock position.

The 20x figure is an advertised maximum for the contracts, not a description of the risk every account will necessarily take. Position size, margin, liquidation rules and changes in the underlying price determine the exposure of an individual trade.

KuCoin lists round-the-clock trading and funding settlements every eight hours for the five contracts. That creates a calendar mismatch: the derivatives can remain active when the reference securities’ home markets are closed. The reference-price methodology matters particularly during those gaps.

Wednesday’s notice establishes the planned product additions and their stated specifications. It does not establish the depth of their order books or demonstrate that a large position could be entered and exited at a quoted price.

The practical expansion is access to more equity-linked exposures through USDT-margined contracts, with the risks of both the reference asset and the derivatives structure attached.

Related Reading

• CME Targets October 19 Start For Bitcoin Cash And Uniswap Futures
• CFTC Lets Exchanges Convert Index Futures Into True Perpetual Contracts
• Binance bStocks Hits $1 Billion As Tokenized Stock Trading Accelerates

This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

Bitcoin Magazine

Kalshi Pushes Deeper Into Crypto Derivatives With Bitcoin-Backed Margin Loans

Kalshi is doubling down on its bid to become the regulated U.S. home for crypto perpetual futures, pairing a new bitcoin-backed lending arrangement with digital-asset custodian BitGo alongside a distribution deal that will put its perpetual contracts in front of Webull’s more than 6 million customers.

Bloomberg first reported Wednesday that customers of Kalshi Prime, the company’s U.S.-registered futures commission merchant, will be able to borrow against digital assets held at BitGo and use the proceeds to fund margin positions on perpetual futures traded on Kalshi’s main exchange. 

Under the tri-party structure, loans will be issued by Kalshi Katalyst, a lending affiliate of Kalshi Prime, and secured against assets held at BitGo Bank & Trust, the firm’s federally chartered trust bank.

Eligible collateral will include bitcoin, ethereum and stablecoins deemed compliant with the GENIUS Act, with additional custodians expected to join Kalshi’s network over time. 

Prime CEO Jeff Bandman told the outlet the product was designed with crypto-native traders in mind, including those already active on unregulated offshore perpetuals venues and large holders who would rather not sell their bitcoin to fund futures positions. 

He also pointed to unexpected demand from businesses, such as Latin American firms that run their operations on U.S. dollar stablecoins.

The move targets a segment where the company has acknowledged a structural disadvantage against Polymarket, its offshore, blockchain-based rival, which has long catered to crypto whales and trading firms that prefer to keep their capital in digital assets. The two platforms have been racing to build out perpetuals since the spring.

Webull debuting crypto-linked perpetual futures via Kalshi rails

The BitGo arrangement landed a day after Webull announced Tuesday that eligible U.S. customers will be able to trade perpetual futures on its platform beginning in November, starting with bitcoin and a handful of other crypto assets. 

The contracts will trade on KalshiEX LLC, Kalshi’s CFTC-regulated designated contract market, and clear through Kalshi Klear LLC, its derivatives clearing organization. Access will initially be limited to customers already approved for futures trading through existing Webull Futures accounts, with broader availability expected before year-end.

Webull Group President and U.S. CEO Anthony Denier said in the company’s release that perpetual futures saw more than $90 trillion in global volume in 2025 and that American investors should be able to access them through a regulated platform. 

These two announcements extend a product buildout for the company, which secured CFTC clearance for the first U.S.-regulated bitcoin perpetual in late May and went live with the contract in early June, before adding gold and silver perpetuals in September and a US500 stock index perpetual earlier this month. 

The expansion comes amid mounting state-level legal pressure, with Utah becoming the latest state to sue Kalshi on Monday over what it alleges is illegal sports gambling, following New York’s similar action against Polymarket last month.

This post Kalshi Pushes Deeper Into Crypto Derivatives With Bitcoin-Backed Margin Loans first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

TL;DR: Kraken Pro has launched a trading competition around perpetual futures linked to Oura and Moonshot ahead of their anticipated IPOs. The contracts provide price exposure to the private companies without conferring shares or an allocation in any future public offering.

Kraken is pushing crypto-style perpetual futures into an area normally reserved for venture capital and private markets: companies that have not gone public yet.

The exchange has launched a Pre-IPO Challenge centered on OURAx and MOONSHOTx perpetual contracts.

The products give traders exposure to market expectations around Oura and Moonshot before either company completes an anticipated initial public offering.

There is an important distinction.

Buying one of the contracts does not mean owning equity in either business.

Traders do not receive shares, voting rights or any allocation in an eventual IPO.

These are derivatives designed to provide price exposure.

Kraken allows eligible participants to trade the contracts with leverage of up to 10x.

The competition runs from October 6 through November 6 and includes a $10,000 USDG prize pool based primarily on trading volume.

Participants must enroll and reach at least $10,000 in combined volume across the eligible contracts to appear on the leaderboard.

The promotion itself is relatively small.

The product behind it is much more interesting.

Private-company valuations have traditionally been difficult for ordinary traders to access.

Employees, venture funds and specialist secondary-market investors can transact in private shares, but there is no continuous public market equivalent to buying Apple or Bitcoin.

Synthetic pre-IPO contracts attempt to fill that gap.

Rather than transferring the underlying equity, they create a market around expectations of what a company could eventually be worth.

Crypto exchanges are particularly suited to that format because perpetual futures already operate continuously and do not require an expiry date in the same way as conventional futures contracts.

But the products introduce obvious risks.

A synthetic price can diverge significantly from any eventual IPO valuation, and leverage magnifies that uncertainty.

Kraken explicitly notes that the contracts do not provide ownership of the underlying companies.

Still, the launch shows how quickly crypto derivatives venues are broadening their scope.

The same market structure built around Bitcoin and altcoins can increasingly be applied to stocks, indices and now private companies.

Crypto exchanges spent years borrowing products from traditional finance.

With pre-IPO perpetuals, the flow is beginning to move in the other direction.

TL;DR

• KuCoin Futures has launched stock-index perpetual contracts tracking Nike, Accenture and the Breakwave Tanker Shipping ETF.
• The contracts are settled in USDT, trade continuously and support leverage of up to 20x.
• They are synthetic derivatives and do not give traders ownership of the underlying shares or ETF units.

KuCoin is extending its crypto-style perpetual futures market further into traditional equities.

The exchange has launched USDT-margined contracts tracking Nike, Accenture and the Breakwave Tanker Shipping ETF, with leverage available from 1x to 20x.

The products use the same broad structure crypto traders already know from perpetual futures, but the reference assets come from conventional securities markets.

The Contracts Track Prices, Not Ownership Rights

KuCoin is explicit that these are synthetic derivatives.

A trader buying NKEUSDT is taking exposure to the price movement of Nike shares. They do not become a Nike shareholder, receive voting rights or take delivery of stock.

The same applies to the Accenture and BWET contracts.

Funding is settled every eight hours, with rates capped at plus or minus 2% under the initial contract parameters.

Trading is available around the clock, even when the underlying U.S. securities market is closed.

Always-On Stock Derivatives Create A Different Market

The 24/7 structure is both the attraction and the complication.

A trader can react to news during evenings and weekends rather than waiting for the cash market to reopen.

But when the underlying equity is not trading, price discovery moves into the derivative itself.

That can create wider gaps between the perpetual and the last official cash-market price, particularly around major news.

Leverage makes those gaps more dangerous.

At 20x, a relatively small move against a position can create a liquidation event long before a long-term investor in the underlying stock would care about the same price change.

KuCoin’s expansion shows how quickly crypto derivatives infrastructure is being repurposed for assets outside crypto.

Perpetual futures began as a native digital-asset product.

They are increasingly becoming an alternative wrapper for trading everything from commodities to equities, with crypto exchanges competing to make traditional markets feel as continuous as Bitcoin.

This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

TL;DR

• Binance Futures is adding USDT-settled perpetual contracts tracking StablecoinX, Viking Therapeutics, McDonald’s and Akamai.
• The contracts trade 24/7 and support leverage of up to 20x.
• They are derivatives that track the underlying equities; buyers do not receive the actual shares.

Binance is continuing to blur the line between a crypto derivatives venue and an around-the-clock market for traditional assets.

The exchange announced four new USDT-settled perpetual contracts on October 6 tied to StablecoinX, Viking Therapeutics, McDonald’s and Akamai Technologies.

Each contract can be traded with up to 20x leverage and remains open 24 hours a day.

Stock Exposure Without Stock Ownership

The new contracts track the price of the underlying equities but do not deliver shares.

That is a fundamental distinction.

A trader holding MCDUSDT has leveraged price exposure to McDonald’s stock through a derivative. They are not a McDonald’s shareholder and do not receive the ordinary rights that come with owning the equity.

Binance settles the contracts in USDT and uses a funding-rate mechanism to keep perpetual prices anchored to their reference markets.

The exchange has capped funding at plus or minus 2% per interval for the new products, with funding settled every eight hours.

24/7 Trading Creates Its Own Price Problem

Traditional stock markets close.

Perpetual futures do not.

That means there will be periods when the Binance derivative continues trading while the underlying U.S. equity market is shut.

During those hours, traders are effectively expressing a view on where the stock should trade when the cash market reopens.

That can be useful, particularly around breaking news, but it can also create dislocations.

Leverage magnifies that risk.

A 20x position can be liquidated by a relatively small adverse move, even when the underlying company’s long-term investment case has barely changed.

Binance has been expanding its TradFi perpetual lineup throughout 2026, and the latest four contracts show that the product is becoming a permanent part of the exchange rather than a one-off experiment.

Crypto exchanges built the world’s largest perpetual-futures markets around digital assets.

Now some of that market structure is being applied to stocks, with the same always-on trading culture and the same need for traders to understand what leverage can do when the reference market itself is closed.

This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.