Quick Summary
- On September 9, Kalshi submitted CFTC filings for perpetual futures contracts on gold and silver.
- The GOLDPERP and SILVERPERP contracts feature cash settlement, perpetual duration, and continuous 24/7 trading availability.
- Pricing data comes from Pyth Network; the contracts involve no physical delivery of precious metals.
- The platform currently offers perpetual futures on 18 digital assets, with more than $8.5 billion in total trading activity.
- CME Group has initiated legal action against the CFTC regarding the classification of Kalshi’s Bitcoin perpetual contract.
Derivatives exchange and prediction market platform Kalshi has requested regulatory clearance from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to introduce perpetual futures products for gold and silver. The applications were lodged on September 9 through CFTC Regulation 40.2(a), a self-certification process that enables registered platforms to launch new instruments without awaiting a commission approval vote.
The proposed instruments carry the designations GOLDPERP and SILVERPERP.
Contract Specifications and Design
GOLDPERP is designed to mirror the spot market price of one troy ounce of gold denominated in U.S. dollars. SILVERPERP follows an identical model for silver’s spot valuation. Cash settlement is the exclusive method for both instruments, eliminating any physical delivery of precious metals.
Unlike conventional futures that terminate on predetermined dates, these instruments remain active without expiration. A funding rate mechanism maintains alignment between contract prices and underlying spot values. Depending on prevailing market dynamics, traders with long exposures may compensate short position holders, or vice versa.
This perpetual framework eliminates the requirement to transfer positions between expiring contract cycles. According to Kalshi, this approach may reduce transaction costs for market participants including hedgers, bullion merchants, refineries, and other entities with sustained precious metals price exposure.
Pyth Network serves as the reference data provider for both instruments. Pyth consolidates pricing information from multiple sources including trading firms, exchanges, and financial service providers.
Availability and Trading Schedule
Kalshi has designated both instruments for continuous operation across all seven days of the week, 24 hours daily, with trading available during weekends and public holidays. This represents an expansion from a previous proposal the firm outlined in July, which contemplated a five-day weekly schedule.
This extended availability provides American market participants with precious metals price exposure during periods when conventional futures exchanges are offline.
Kalshi highlighted that silver markets have experienced persistent annual supply shortfalls beginning in 2021, with anticipated tightness extending through late 2025 and into early 2026. The company emphasized that SILVERPERP’s cash-settlement structure prevents any impact on physical delivery markets.
Platform Growth and Regulatory Challenges
The precious metals filings arrive amid Kalshi’s aggressive expansion in cryptocurrency perpetual contracts. The platform secured CFTC authorization for its Bitcoin perpetual instrument in May, marking the first federally regulated product of its kind in the United States. Subsequently, the company has introduced 17 additional digital asset perpetuals, encompassing Ether, XRP, Solana, and Hyperliquid.
On September 4, the platform launched five additional crypto perpetual contracts covering BNB, Cardano, Worldcoin, Aave, and Venice Token. By June, cumulative trading volume across Kalshi’s perpetual futures offerings had surpassed $8.5 billion.
In June, CME Group initiated litigation against the CFTC, contending that Kalshi’s Bitcoin perpetual should be designated as a swap product rather than a futures contract. The regulatory agency has requested case dismissal, asserting that CME failed to demonstrate tangible competitive harm. A judicial decision remains pending.
The newly proposed gold and silver perpetual contracts represent distinct offerings from Kalshi’s current short-duration event-based contracts on these same metals.
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