Kalshi launched perpetual futures contracts on gold and silver on Thursday after winning CFTC approval, marking the first non-crypto perpetual futures cleared for trading in the U.S. The contracts never expire and track spot prices through a funding mechanism, giving traders an alternative to traditional futures, ETFs, and physical metal.
First non-crypto perps get regulatory clearance
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved the gold and silver contracts this week, following a filing Kalshi originally submitted in July. Perpetual futures, or perps, carry no expiration date and no requirement for the trader to hold the underlying asset, with price alignment to the spot market maintained through a built-in funding mechanism.
Kalshi said the structure offers advantages over existing routes to precious metals exposure, including traditional futures with rollover fees, ETFs with management fees, and physical metal that carries storage and transport costs. Udesh Jha, chief risk officer at Kalshi's clearing house, Kalshi Klear, framed metals as a natural next step. According to CNBC: "Metals, especially gold and silver, have a story to tell because of inflation", Jha said.
Commodity contracts outpacing crypto growth
That demand has already shown up in Kalshi's commodity-related event contracts, which crossed $400 million in trading volume in seven months — a milestone its crypto event contracts needed twice as long to reach.
Kalshi became the first company to offer regulated domestic perpetual futures when the CFTC approved its bitcoin perpetual contract in late May. The company noted that perps recorded more than $90 trillion in global trading volume in 2025, a market U.S. traders had previously been able to access only through unregulated offshore venues. Since launch, Kalshi's crypto perps have done $44 billion in notional volume, the company said.
More asset classes in the pipeline
Kalshi has pushed to expand the product line further. The company filed with the CFTC in August to list perpetual futures tied to U.S. equity indexes, copper, and currencies, though those filings remain pending.
The gold and silver launch follows broader industry disruption that began with the original crypto perps approval. CME Group and CBOE Global Markets saw their stocks fall after the CFTC first cleared domestic perps, as investors worried the product would cut into established futures exchange business, and CME Group has since filed a lawsuit against the CFTC over its decision to permit the contracts. Jha attributed Kalshi's early success to its regulated structure.
Source: Kalshi
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