The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced on Tuesday that Kalshi had self-certified perpetual contracts based on prices for gold and silver, marking a significant development in the ongoing regulatory debate. However, this certification comes as The CME Group continues its lawsuit against the CFTC since June over whether perpetual contracts should be treated as futures or swaps. The lawsuit challenges the CFTC's approval of Bitcoin perps as futures rather than swaps, arguing that the decision violates federal law by reversing policy without adequate explanation. As reported by DeFi Rate, Bitget Wallet CCO Alvin Kan noted that these perpetual contracts represent "a way to bring a large offshore crypto trading model into regulated US markets and compete for a younger, more active trader base."
According to the latest CFTC filings, Kalshi's gold and silver perpetual contracts will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with settlement based on the difference between price targets and actual Reference Prices at transaction times. The contracts will trade on Kalshi around the clock every day of the week and will be "anchored to the underlying reference market." For these perps, traders will buy and sell positions based on price targets, and then contracts will settle on the difference between that price target and the actual Reference Price at the time of the transactions. Essentially, traders on the premium side of these perpetual contracts will pay the traders holding the discounted side of the contracts, bringing in the perpetual element as Kalshi users can hold their positions in perpetuity.
According to Kalshi's filing, the perpetual structure could reduce rollover costs for market participants maintaining long-running gold exposure. The company identified potential users including financial institutions, refiners, bullion dealers, and companies that use metal in their operations. Since both products settle in cash, traders will not receive physical gold or silver bars, and contract holders cannot demand delivery from Kalshi when closing positions. The contracts offer regulated derivatives exposure without requiring ownership of physical gold or silver, providing a different structure from listed options and dated futures without requiring selection of monthly or quarterly expiration dates.
As reported by Kalshi, the metal filings follow the company's rapid expansion of cryptocurrency perpetuals. On September 4, 2025, the company added five crypto perps tied to BNB, Cardano, Worldcoin, Aave, and Venice Token, bringing its total cryptocurrency perpetual futures to 18 contracts. Including Bitcoin, Kalshi now lists perpetual futures connected to 18 cryptocurrencies, with maximum leverage reaching approximately 4.5 times for BNB and 1.9 times for Venice Token. The company previously introduced an XRP perpetual in June and achieved over $5.5 billion in trading volume by June 2025.
The certification of gold and silver perpetual contracts represents a significant development in the ongoing regulatory debate, as these markets are the most popular form of price discovery for associated commodities globally. Kalshi's decision to certify these contracts may oppose the court's decision in The CME Group's lawsuit or represent some of the first applications of a new understanding of perpetual contracts. A court ruling that perps should be regulated as swaps would force Kalshi to make adjustments, though the basic concept of futures connected to precious metal prices with no finite expiration may survive in some form. The real question becomes whether a version of gold and silver perps adjusted to fit swaps rules would appeal to traders, as interested parties could alternatively continue using forums based outside the US.
