Kalshi has launched 24/7 perpetual contracts for gold and silver, marking the first such offerings in the United States under CFTC regulation. The move represents a shift away from traditional futures contracts designed around physical commodity delivery schedules, introducing a modern trading structure for precious metals that operates continuously throughout the week.
- Product: 24/7 perpetual contracts on gold and silver
- Regulator: CFTC-regulated
- Global perpetuals volume: $90 trillion in 2025
- Key advantage: Eliminate rollover fees and operate without expiration dates
Perpetual contracts differ fundamentally from traditional futures, which were originally designed to address farmer concerns about price volatility during harvest seasons. Futures retained expiration dates throughout their evolution, even as modern trading expanded to metals, cryptocurrencies, and fiat currencies. This structure creates inefficiencies for contemporary investors seeking commodity exposure without forced rollovers or physical delivery obligations.
Kalshi argues that precious metals investors typically pursue macroeconomic hedging rather than physical settlement, making current options suboptimal. Traditional futures require costly rollover fees, ETFs charge management fees while limiting leverage, and physical purchases incur storage and transportation costs. Perpetual contracts address these limitations by concentrating liquidity in a single instrument, eliminating monthly fees, and enabling 24/7 trading, particularly relevant as geopolitical developments increasingly occur outside standard market hours.
The perpetuals market has grown substantially, with offshore platforms handling $90 trillion in trading volume during 2025. Kalshi’s CFTC-regulated launch provides American retail and institutional investors direct access to this structure, competing with unregulated offshore alternatives while maintaining domestic regulatory compliance.
