Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, has launched gold futures trading in London, introducing exchange-traded precious metal contracts in the world's largest physical gold trading market. According to reports from Investing.com, the exchange began offering gold futures this week, with the contracts priced off the daily London auctions that ICE runs. ICE has also launched futures contracts for silver, platinum and palladium as part of the comprehensive precious metals offering. The contracts cover delivery from a single day up to six months ahead and clear through ICE's London arm, which also clears the Brent crude oil contract.
London represents the world's largest centre for physical gold trading, with daily over-the-counter transactions approaching $190 billion. As reported by Investing.com, the city's vaults hold gold worth about $1.4 trillion. The new ICE contracts are linked to London auction prices, which are used as a reference for gold transactions globally. These exchange-based contracts provide market participants with an alternative to traditional over-the-counter trading methods, allowing traders to agree to buy or sell an asset at a set price at a future date without necessarily buying or selling the physical asset immediately.
ICE's latest launch comes alongside its existing role in London's precious metals market, where the exchange also operates the daily auctions used to set benchmark prices for gold and silver, as well as platinum and palladium. According to the Financial Times, ICE took over the London gold price in 2015, when its benchmark unit replaced a bank-run fixing dating back to 1919 with an electronic auction. Auction participants have grown from four to 20 since then, including major players like Jane Street, DRW, Goldman Sachs and Citi. Average daily auction volume has risen by more than 30% since 2015, to more than 424,000 ounces. Chris Rhodes, president of ICE Futures Europe, told the Financial Times that "Derivatives markets generally are there to support the physical market."
ICE faces competition from CME Group, whose gold futures in New York averaged roughly $125 billion in daily trading in the first six months of the year, while ICE's own US gold market trails both CME and Shanghai. The Financial Times reports that metals made up more than 60% of global CFD broker volumes in the first half of 2025, with gold accounting for close to 80% of that metals business. ICE's US exchange already lists a 100-ounce Gold Daily Futures contract delivered into London vaults, which auction participants use to move positions into clearing at ICE Clear U.S. The London version, set out in a September 17 notice from ICE Futures Europe, keeps the listing and the clearing in the UK.
Previous efforts to establish gold futures trading in London have struggled significantly. The London Metal Exchange's contract ran for five years before closing in 2022 due to low volumes, and the London Gold Futures Market failed to gain traction in the mid-1980s. Unlike New York, which has established gold futures trading, London has not had a major gold futures market in recent years. However, the London Bullion Market Association called for gold futures trading to return to Britain last year. The Financial Times notes that a futures market operating next to London's vaults could make price dislocations less likely, following recent instances where prices in the two cities split after US tariff announcements in April 2025, with New York futures trading above London physical prices. Central banks are also reconsidering storage locations, with the Dutch central bank moving more than 78 tonnes of gold from New York to London last month, citing "increasing geopolitical unrest" and concerns about potential government action.
