Futures are financial contracts to buy or sell an asset at a set date in the future for a fixed price. Futures trading benefits investors by allowing them to offset or assume the risk of a price change of an asset over time.
Futures contracts are available for a variety of markets including commodities, stock indexes, currencies, and more. Different-sized contracts allow traders to participate in these markets with reduced financial commitment.
Kraken Derivatives US futures products now include Bitcoin (BTC), Micro Bitcoin (MBT), Ether (ETH), Micro Ether (MET), Solana (GSOL), and Micro Solana (MSL). We now offer 75 new Crypto and TradFi contracts across CME, CBOT, NYMEX, and COMEX exchanges: Indices: S&P 500 and NASDAQ 100; Commodities: Gold and oil; FX: EUR, GBP, AUD; more: Rice, lumber, cattle, you name it.
Futures originated in commodity markets, helping buyers and sellers hedge against price changes. For instance, a grain buyer could lock in a future price for wheat to avoid spikes during harvest season. This idea evolved into modern futures, which cover commodities, indexes, interest rates, and digital assets like crypto.
In essence, a futures contract allows you to lock in a market price now for a transaction that occurs later. This benefits both parties: buyers secure a price, and sellers know what they'll earn. In today’s markets, futures are primarily used for speculation or hedging against price swings. With Kraken Derivative US's offering, you're trading highly liquid, regulated CME futures products in a simple, cash-settled format.
Futures trade nearly 24 hours a day, five days a week. Trading begins Sunday at 5:00 p.m. CT and ends Friday at 4:00 p.m. CT. Kraken Derivatives US recognizes a "day-trading session" cutoff at 3:45 p.m. CT, after which any open positions must meet initial margin requirements to be held overnight.
This broad schedule provides flexibility and the ability to respond to market events at nearly any hour. The trading hours are governed by the contract’s exchange—in this case, the CME Group for all crypto products at launch.
Please see Trading Hours and Calendar
You can either sign-up via the competition page in Kraken Pro, or, follow these steps to get started:
Make sure your account is verified.
Unlock US Derivatives by following these steps.
Visit the Kraken Pro competition page to accept the Futures Terms & Conditions and register to participate and unlock Derivatives trading.
To trade on Kraken Derivatives US, you need to fund your futures account.
Once your account is verified for Kraken Derivatives US, you can transfer USD from your Kraken spot account to your futures account via your account dashboard.
Tap the Balance button in your futures account section.
Use the Transfer Funds modal to move USD from your spot account.
Transfers are instantaneous and available 24/7
Note: You must first deposit into your spot account before you can fund your futures account. Direct deposits into the futures account are not supported.
US residents who have unlocked access to futures trading, joined the competition and who place at least one trade during the period.
Institutional accounts, omnibus accounts, sub-accounts and market-makers are not eligible to take part. Clients who already have a NinjaTrader account are unable to participate. Learn more
Only one trading account is allowed per person or entity.
Any trading activity in sub accounts will be ignored for the competition.
Kraken reserves the right to disqualify participants who abuse the competition’s rules.
Read Kraken’s terms and conditions for all competition rules.
You will need to Opt-in to the competition by clicking Join now. Once you join, we’ll automatically track your realized P&L and notional trading volume for positions opened after you joined the competition. Just trade as you normally would – we’ll handle the calculations.
Rankings are based on a scoring system designed to reward trading efficiency.
Scores are calculated as follows:
Score = sum(realized P&L) ÷ sum(notional value of all contracts traded) × 10000 x multiplier
where multiplier is applied when sum(realized P&L) > 0
if notional <$5K → multiplier = 1
if notional $5K-$10K → multiplier = 1.5
if notional $10K-$50K → multiplier = 2
if notional $50K–$100K → multiplier = 5
if notional $100K–$1M → multiplier = 8
if notional > $1M → multiplier = 10
The 200 traders with the highest scores at the end of the competition will share a prize pool of 50,000 USD.
| Rank | Prize per person |
|---|---|
| 1 | 5,000 USD |
| 2 | 3,000 USD |
| 3 | 2,000 USD |
| 4-10 | 1,500 USD |
| 11-50 | 400 USD |
| 51-100 | 170 USD |
| 101-200 | 50 USD |
The top trader will also receive a Thanksgiving turkey, courtesy of Kraken. Gobble gobble.
All traders who enter the competition and place at least one futures trade will also receive a 20 USD entry bonus.
If you’re eligible, the 20 USD entry bonus and any winnings from the 50,000 USD prize pool will be paid to your futures wallet within 7 days of the competition ending.
We did indeed. Very much so.
Finish first on the leaderboard and you can claim a Thanksgiving turkey from your chosen local supplier – we’ll cover the cost.
Prefer cash? No problem. We’ll pay you the value of a (reasonably priced) 15 lb turkey instead.
One thing we won’t do: cook it for you. Happy Thanksgiving!
Read more about Kraken Derivatives in our Support Center article What are US futures & other frequently asked questions.
For our full collection of Kraken Derivatives documentation, see our Support Center section for US futures.
Brokerage services are provided by NinjaTrader Clearing, LLC doing business as Kraken Derivatives US, a Futures Commission Merchant registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and a member of the National Futures Association (NFA ID #0309379).