Kalshi launched perpetual futures contracts tied to gold and silver on Thursday, after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved the listing, marking the first non-crypto perpetual futures contracts to receive regulatory clearance in the U.S.
The CFTC approved the contracts this week, following a filing Kalshi had originally submitted in July, according to CNBC.
Perpetual futures — commonly called perps — are a type of futures contract that never expire and carry no requirement for the trader to possess the underlying asset. Price alignment with the spot market is maintained through a built-in funding mechanism. Kalshi said the structure offers advantages over existing options for precious metals exposure, including traditional futures with rollover fees, ETFs with management fees, and physical metal that carries storage and transport costs.
Udesh Jha, who serves as chief risk officer at Kalshi's clearing house, Kalshi Klear, described metals as a natural next step given investor demand for commodity exposure. "Metals, especially gold and silver, have a story to tell because of inflation," Jha told CNBC.
That demand has shown up in Kalshi's commodity-related event contracts, which crossed $400 million in trading volume in seven months, the company said — a milestone its crypto event contracts needed twice as long to achieve, according to CNBC.