Kalshi Brings Perpetual Futures to Precious Metals

Kalshi, a prediction market platform, has launched perpetual futures for gold and silver after receiving approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). This move marks an expansion of Kalshi's offerings beyond cryptocurrency-related contracts. The new markets for these precious metal contracts went live on Thursday.

The CFTC approved the listing of these perpetuals this week, following an original filing in July. Kalshi first received approval to list perpetual futures tied to cryptocurrencies in late May, which has seen $44 billion in notional volume since then. The company's chief risk officer, Udesh Jha, said that metals have a story to tell due to inflation and high interest in commodities.

Perpetual futures, or 'perps,' are contracts with no expiration date and do not require ownership of the underlying asset. They track the price of an asset, with a funding mechanism to keep the contract aligned with market prices. Kalshi is seeking approval for contracts tied to U.S. equities, industrial metal copper, and currencies in August.

The launch of perps on precious metals marks the first non-crypto related contract approved by the CFTC. Traditional futures exchanges like CBOE and CME Group saw their stocks tumble due to fears that perps could disrupt existing business models. However, Jha attributed Kalshi's early success in this area to its regulated nature.