US Bitcoin Perpetual Futures: Webull Brings Kalshi Perps to Retail in November

US bitcoin perpetual futures now have a retail launch date. Webull said on October 20 that it will start rolling out perpetual futures to eligible US customers in November 2026, beginning with Bitcoin and other crypto assets, listed on KalshiEX and cleared through Kalshi Klear, both CFTC-regulated, per the Webull press release. Broader availability is expected before year-end.

That puts a mainstream US broker on the same product that has lived offshore for most of its history. For traders who already run perps on Hyperliquid, the useful questions are practical: what the onshore contract actually is, which flow it could pull, and how a second, regulated funding rate changes the way price discovery gets read.

What Webull and Kalshi Are Launching for US Bitcoin Perpetual Futures

The structure is a standard US futures stack. The contract lists on KalshiEX LLC, a Designated Contract Market, clears through Kalshi Klear LLC, a Derivatives Clearing Organization, and reaches customers through Webull Futures LLC, a registered Futures Commission Merchant and NFA member, according to the Webull release. Access runs through existing Webull Futures accounts, limited at first to customers approved for futures trading.

Mechanically it is a perp in the familiar sense. There is no expiry, positions pay or receive periodic funding to keep the contract near the underlying, and positions are automatically liquidated if margin falls below maintenance, per the same release. Webull says users will see margin requirements, funding rates and liquidation levels in the app.

What the release does not say matters as much. It gives no maximum margin multiple, no fee schedule and no funding interval. Until those numbers are public, any comparison with offshore venues on cost or margin efficiency is guesswork.

Kalshi Becomes the Onshore Perp Venue

Webull is plugging into a venue that has been collecting approvals all year. The CFTC approved a Bitcoin perpetual on Kalshi earlier in 2026, and Kalshi has since pursued XRP and other altcoin perps, per Coinpaper. On October 2 the Commission also approved a Kalshi perpetual on a broad-based security index, according to The Merkle.

The regulatory runway was built in pieces. CFTC staff issued Letter 26-19 on June 12 for digital-commodity perpetuals, then Letter 26-29 on October 3, which let contract markets strip maturity dates from existing broad-based index futures, with that relief window closing on October 20, per The Merkle. Webull's announcement landed on that deadline day.

The larger brokers are lining up behind it. Robinhood said on September 29 that it plans to launch perpetual futures for US users in the coming months, and Coinbase filed in September to list perps tied to large-cap US stocks, per The Block. The Block also reports a Mizuho survey of more than 600 active Robinhood users in which 94% said they would be likely or very likely to trade single-stock perps if offered.

Which Flow Moves Onshore and Which Stays on Hyperliquid

Hyperliquid fully blocks US residents, as U.Today notes. So the first-order effect is not a migration of existing Hyperliquid volume. It is new US retail flow that had no compliant path to perps before, now reaching a regulated book through a broker app.

That changes who sits on the other side. In the Mizuho survey, 84% of respondents said they would fund perp trading mostly or entirely with new money, per The Block. Robinhood executive Nicola White has argued that regulated US products could pull back activity that moved offshore because of regulatory uncertainty, according to Benzinga.

The scale on offer is large on paper. Webull's US CEO Anthony Denier cited global perps volume above $90 trillion in 2025, per the Webull release, though Coinpaper points out that this is traded volume, not capital committed. Not everyone is comfortable with the retail angle: CME CEO Terry Duffy has raised concerns about liquidation risk and recurring funding costs for retail traders, per the same Coinpaper report.

Two Funding Rates for the Same Bitcoin

Once the Kalshi book has real open interest, Bitcoin will have one more funding rate to compare against Hyperliquid and the large offshore CEXs. Funding is the price longs pay shorts, or the reverse, to hold a perp near spot. When one venue's funding runs well above another's, it shows which pool of traders is crowding which side.

A US retail book fed through broker apps is likely to be a different crowd from Hyperliquid's on-chain traders and from the market makers working offshore venues. A spread between onshore and offshore funding would then be a readable signal: positive funding on Kalshi with flat funding on Hyperliquid would point to US retail chasing longs that the offshore market is not confirming. The reverse would hint at offshore traders leaning one way while US retail stays out.

None of that can be measured until the product trades and publishes data. The November rollout is the start date, not the point where the book is deep enough to move price. Early on, open interest on a new venue tends to be small, and funding prints on a thin book can be noisy.

What to Track When the US Book Opens

Three things will show whether onshore perps matter for orderflow. First, the published contract terms: margin multiples, funding interval and fees decide whether active traders bother. Second, open interest growth on the Kalshi contract relative to existing venues. Third, whether funding on the onshore book diverges from offshore funding during fast moves, which is when crowd differences show up.

The offshore side of that comparison is already visible. The Buildix screener tracks open interest and funding across Hyperliquid perps, so when the US contract starts printing, you will have the Hyperliquid baseline to read it against. A regulated US Bitcoin perp does not replace the offshore book. It adds a second crowd with its own funding rate, and the gap between the two is where the information sits.