Breaking: Kalshi Files For Gold, Silver, Platinum Futures To Expand Beyond Crypto

Kalshi is applying to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for permission to introduce perpetual futures contracts on gold, silver and platinum. This move comes part of the company’s latest strategy to expand its derivatives trading from crypto perpetual futures.

Kalshi To Launch Gold, Silver, Platinum Perps

For this, Kalshi went through the CFTC’s self-certification process with the proposed contracts, per a Bloomberg report published Tuesday. Within this structure, the regulator will have 45 days to determine if the products can proceed for approval, or whether it should be rejected.

The proposed agreements would not have expiration dates. Traders would have the ability to hold their positions open without going into new futures contracts periodically. It’s not like a traditional futures contract, which has an expiration date.

Kalshi is planning to open for 24-hour derivatives trading from Monday to Friday. Those hours would follow a similar time frame to that used by the underlying precious metals markets.

The company will consider trading hours further down the road, Chief Risk Officer Udesh Jha said.

Perpetual futures were the first to become popular in the crypto trading space. They enable traders to obtain leveraged exposure without a settlement deadline. Generally, the price is maintained in close proximity to the underlying asset by periodic transactions of funding payments between traders.

In recent months, there has been a growing interest in similar contracts of traditional assets. There are already a few crypto-native trading platforms that have launched commodities-based perpetual products, like gold and crude oil.

There was also an increase in demand during the US-Iran conflict. The crypto-based trading platforms that were set up for oil-linked perpetual contracts continued to operate while conventional futures markets were closed.

Recent Legal Battle With CME Group

Earlier this year, Kalshi became the first regulated U.S. marketplace to be approved to offer crypto perpetual futures. It launched Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP futures among other crypto products. This later became the basis for a lawsuit brought by CME Group.

In June, CME filed a lawsuit against the CFTC, claiming perpetual contracts should be classified as swaps, rather than futures. Kalshi says the lawsuit will not affect their product plans.

The move is the latest in an arms race among exchanges to make trading accessible. CFTC just rejected a proposal from the CME to trade oil continuously. CME is also readying up to offer gold futures trading 24/7, adding to the competition in the precious metals derivatives market.