Kalshi BitGo loans let traders borrow against bitcoin for perps

Kalshi BitGo loans are the prediction market's latest push into crypto trading. On Wednesday, Oct. 21, Kalshi said some customers of Kalshi Prime, its U.S.-registered futures commission merchant, can borrow against digital assets held at BitGo and use the money as margin for perpetual futures on Kalshi's exchange, Bloomberg reported.

What happened

The loans come from Kalshi Katalyst, a lending affiliate of Kalshi Prime, and are secured by assets deposited at BitGo Bank & Trust under a tri-party structure: the client borrows, Katalyst lends and BitGo holds the collateral. Bitcoin, ether and stablecoins that comply with the GENIUS Act are eligible, Kalshi Prime chief executive Jeff Bandman told Bloomberg, and other custodians are expected to join.

"What we wanted to do was make it possible for customers to stay in crypto," Bandman said, citing investors who would rather not sell their bitcoin and a Latin American company that runs on dollar stablecoins.

Kalshi started offering perpetual futures, contracts with no expiry date, this year on gold, silver and cryptocurrencies. The CFTC approved its bitcoin perpetual on May 29, and the exchange processed roughly $1.1 billion of perpetuals volume on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg figures cited by Quartz. Crypto Briefing reported that Webull customers will also get access to Kalshi's perpetuals under a separate deal.

Its crypto perpetuals crossed $1 billion in trading volume within a week of launch, Quartz reported, and before that U.S. traders had no regulated domestic venue for such contracts. Event contracts on Kalshi still have to be fully collateralised; the clearinghouse's leverage request would limit access to participants that meet capital thresholds, including self-clearing members.

Why it matters

The target is clear. Bandman said the product could help Kalshi win over crypto-native trading firms and "whales," a group where the U.S. exchange may be at a structural disadvantage to offshore rival Polymarket. "I built this because I was thinking about digitally native customers who are active and who might already be trading perpetual futures in some of the unregulated offshore markets," he said.

Kalshi BitGo loans also add a layer of risk for users. Borrowing against a volatile asset to fund leveraged positions means a sharp drop in bitcoin can hurt both the collateral and the trade at once, Crypto Briefing noted. Stablecoin collateral is the more conservative choice.

It fits a wider expansion. Kalshi has asked regulators to list perpetual-style contracts on oil, which we covered in our Kalshi oil perpetual story, and on U.S. stocks. Its clearinghouse filed last month to offer margin on some event contracts. Regulators are also weighing how perpetuals fit U.S. rules, as in our CFTC CME perpetual futures report.

What's next

Kalshi did not give interest rates or loan-to-value limits in the reports. Bloomberg's account is on Yahoo Finance.

Watch whether more custodians join and whether the CFTC approves leverage on event contracts, which would take Kalshi BitGo loans beyond perpetuals.