Kalshi Gets CFTC OK to List Precious Metals Futures

Kalshi obtained regulatory permission to list precious metals-related perpetual futures on its platform, CNBC reported Thursday (Sept. 10).

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees derivatives contracts, approved the listing of the gold and silver perpetuals this week, the report said.

Kalshi first won approval to list perpetual futures tied to cryptocurrencies in May, with those contracts doing $44 billion in notional volume since then, according to the report.

Udesh Jha, chief risk officer at the exchange’s clearing house Kalshi Klear, said the company wanted to make precious metals its next perpetual futures offering because of strong interest in the commodities, the report said.

“Metals, especially gold and silver, have a story to tell because of inflation,” Jha said, per the report.

Demand can be seen in Kalshi’s commodity-related event contracts, which include metals and oil, according to the report. Volume on those contracts has topped $400 million in trading volume in seven months, half the time it took its crypto event contracts to hit the same milestone.

Perpetual futures, or “perps,” are futures-style contracts with no expiration and no need for an investor to own the underlying asset. Instead, they track the price of an asset, with a funding mechanism to keep the contract and market price in line, the report said.

Kalshi is also looking for approval for contracts tied to U.S. equities, industrial metal copper and currencies. This latest CFTC approval is the first non-crypto related contract that has been granted, according to the report.

In other prediction markets news, a federal appeals court ruling represented a victory for state gaming regulators in their jurisdictional battle with the CFTC, as the court found that Nevada is permitted to subject Kalshi’s sports event contracts to its gambling laws.

The decision widens a conflict among federal courts over whether sports-related prediction contracts are financial derivatives regulated solely by the CFTC or conventional sports wagers governed on the state level.

“Most significantly, the ruling conflicts directly with an April decision … which held that New Jersey could not regulate Kalshi’s sports contracts,” PYMNTS reported Aug. 31.

The resulting split creates promising conditions for the Supreme Court to resolve a dispute with implications for prediction markets and the traditional authority of states to regulate gambling.