Kalshi Expands Beyond Crypto With Gold and Silver Perps After CFTC Approval

Kalshi has expanded its perpetual futures offering to gold and silver, bringing the contracts to U.S. traders after receiving approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The new contracts launched Thursday, Sept. 10, after Kalshi originally filed for approval in July. 

The move gives traders a way to take leveraged positions on the price of precious metals without owning the underlying assets and marks the first CFTC-approved Kalshi perpetual futures product outside cryptocurrencies.

Kalshi’s $44 billion crypto push sets the stage for gold and silver perps

In its bid to build a broader derivatives platform, the company launched crypto perpetual futures in late May after receiving CFTC approval for its Bitcoin contract. Since then, its crypto perps have generated about $44 billion in notional trading volume, according to figures published by Kalshi.

The new gold and silver contracts, GOLDPERP and SILVERPERP, use the same perpetual structure, allowing traders to bet on gold and silver price movements without owning the underlying metals.

Unlike traditional futures, perpetual contracts have no expiration date and use funding payments to keep prices aligned with the underlying market.

Kalshi currently lists maximum leverage of 15.7x for gold and 8.6x for silver, although those limits can change. Its crypto lineup includes perpetual contracts for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, BNB, XRP, and Dogecoin, with leverage varying by asset.

The move expands Kalshi’s existing commodities business. The company already offers event contracts tied to assets, including gold, silver, and oil, but those products are based on specific outcomes and settlement dates rather than continuous price exposure.

Udesh Jha, chief risk officer at Kalshi Klear, said interest in commodities helped drive the decision to add precious metals to the perpetual futures lineup. Also, Kalshi has said trading in its commodity-related event contracts surpassed $400 million within seven months.

Gold and silver also offer exposure to markets closely watched for signals on inflation, interest rates, and broader economic conditions.

Kalshi takes on traditional exchanges with new perpetual futures contracts

Kalshi first filed for the proposal in August with the CFTC for perpetual futures tied to the MerQube U.S. Large Cap Index and copper.

The proposed equity index contract would track the 500 largest U.S.-based companies, while the proposed copper contract would reference the spot price of copper in U.S. dollars per pound.

Kalshi has therefore been moving steadily beyond its prediction market roots and into products that resemble the instruments offered by established derivatives exchanges.

The expansion could increase pressure on traditional exchanges such as CME Group and Cboe Global Markets, which have raised concerns about Kalshi’s growing derivatives business. 

Notably, CME has sued the CFTC over the regulator’s treatment of Kalshi’s Bitcoin perpetuals, arguing that the contracts were improperly classified as futures rather than swaps.

Perpetual futures do not have expiration dates and can trade around the clock, giving them a different structure from traditional futures contracts. Kalshi has defended its products by pointing to its CFTC-regulated status and risk controls.

The company’s expansion comes as prediction markets continue to attract significant trading activity. 

Kalshi recorded about $37.2 billion in volume in August, down from $40.1 billion in July, while Polymarket and its U.S. platform recorded a combined $8.2 billion. 

Total volume across the two platforms fell 14.5% to $45.3 billion in August. Investor interest in Kalshi has also grown with a recent SEC filing showing about $1.12 billion in equity sales from a private offering that could reach nearly $1.5 billion. 

The disclosure followed a $1 billion Series F funding round in May that valued the company at $22 billion.