Binance rolled out European-style options on gold and silver, settled in USDT through its ADGM-regulated Nest Exchange, after billions of dollars in trading on its metals perpetual futures. Retail traders may buy calls and puts but cannot write options, capping their losses at the premium paid.
Binance, the world's largest digital asset exchange by volume, rolled out options on gold and silver on Wednesday, extending its push into traditional assets. The contracts go live through Nest Exchange Limited, the company's Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM)-regulated exchange.
They build directly on demand for the exchange's gold and silver perpetual futures, which traders have been able to access since January. Shunyet Jan, head of exchange and trading at Binance, said in an email that with gold hitting record highs and investors seeking inflation hedges outside traditional equities, the commodity options give users additional compliant, crypto-native ways to diversify without leaving the platform.
Metals perpetuals peaked at billions a day
A Binance representative said gold perpetuals have hit a peak daily volume of $7.77 billion, while silver perpetuals reached $7.27 billion. Those peaks represented roughly 3–8% of COMEX gold volume and 9–20% of COMEX silver volume at that time.
Exchanges typically follow a playbook with derivatives, starting with futures to build a deep, liquid order book and tight spreads, then layering on options as a second wave of more complex, higher-margin products. The representative said the volume growth suggests participation can ramp up quickly when access to traditional market exposure becomes simpler, adding: "Liquidity can become relevant quickly."
Retail can buy the options but not sell them
Retail investors can buy call and put options on gold and silver but cannot go short, Binance said. That caps their losses at the premium paid and strips out the liquidation risk that comes with being short options.
Writing options is a popular yield-enhancement strategy, where the premium collected compensates the seller for taking on the risk of sharp moves in the underlying asset. But it demands high risk tolerance and sizeable capital and carries the potential for large losses if markets swing violently, so Binance is limiting gold and silver options writing to the exchange and designated market makers.
More underlying assets are planned
The new contracts are settled in USDT and reference a weighted average of prices drawn from multiple independent third-party data vendors that report the traditional gold and silver markets. Binance is pairing the launch with client-education videos and the risk disclosures required under its ADGM framework.
Beyond the metals, the firm plans to expand the options suite to other underlying assets while exploring the possibility of limited retail options writing under tighter rules.
Source: CoinDesk
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