Kalshi Withdraws PEPE Perpetual Futures Filing

Prediction market platform Kalshi has withdrawn its filing to launch perpetual futures tied to the Pepe (PEPE) meme coin, just two days after submitting the proposal to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

KalshiEX LLC had self-certified the KPEPEPERP contract for listing, seeking to expand its growing lineup of cryptocurrency derivatives. The proposed product was structured as a cash-settled perpetual futures contract with no fixed expiration date and no physical delivery of PEPE tokens.

According to the filing, the contract would have tracked a kPEPE spot price using CF Benchmarks as its underlying price index. Trading hours, funding payments and settlement mechanisms were designed similarly to Kalshi’s existing Shiba Inu perpetual futures product.

However, Kalshi withdrew the PEPE futures filing on October 1 without publicly disclosing a reason. The original submission was made alongside a filing for Uniswap perpetual futures, which moved forward and was subsequently listed on the platform.

Kalshi positioned the proposed PEPE contract as a risk-management tool for market participants with direct exposure to the meme coin. Potential users included liquidity providers, market makers and over-the-counter trading desks seeking to hedge PEPE price fluctuations.

The withdrawal comes as Kalshi continues expanding beyond its core prediction market business. The platform already offers perpetual futures linked to several cryptocurrencies, including popular meme coins Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.

Kalshi has also broadened its derivatives portfolio beyond digital assets. The CFTC recently approved an S&P 500 stock index perpetual futures product from the platform, potentially increasing competition with established derivatives exchanges such as CME.

Meanwhile, PEPE remained under selling pressure. The meme coin fell more than 3% over the previous 24 hours to approximately $0.00000435. Despite the daily decline, PEPE was still up more than 20% over the past month.

Trading activity also weakened, with PEPE's 24-hour volume dropping by more than 20%. Kalshi has not indicated whether it plans to resubmit the PEPE perpetual futures contract at a later date.