Precious Metals Perpetual Futures Contracts Hit Daily Volumes of $7.77 Billion for Gold and $7.27 Billion for Silver, New Options Infrastructure Comes via Regulated Nest Exchange in Abu Dhabi.
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, announced on Wednesday, July 29, 2026, the launch of gold and silver options. These are European-style contracts, settled in Tether (USDT), available through Nest Exchange Limited, an exchange regulated by Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), as reported by CoinDesk.
This move follows the perpetual futures contracts that Binance introduced for these two metals in January 2026, which have recorded billions of dollars in daily volume. According to data provided to CoinDesk by an unnamed Binance representative, gold perpetuals peaked at $7.77 billion in daily turnover, and silver at $7.27 billion. At those record moments, Binance's gold perpetual volume was between 3% and 8% of COMEX volume, while silver perpetuals reached 9% to 20% of that commodity exchange's volume.
"The volume growth suggests that when access to traditional market exposure becomes simpler and more integrated, user participation can quickly increase. Liquidity can quickly become relevant," said the Binance representative.
Shunyet Jan, Head of Exchange and Trading at Binance, explained in an emailed statement to CoinDesk the motivation behind the launch: "We have seen strong demand for our commodity perpetuals since their introduction earlier this year, and commodity options build on that momentum. With gold reaching record highs and investors seeking inflation hedges beyond traditional stocks, Binance's commodity options offer users additional aligned, crypto-native ways to diversify without leaving the platform."
Although options (call and put contracts) allow traders to hedge against price volatility and gain asymmetric exposure for a small premium, Binance has imposed strict restrictions on retail investors. They can buy call and put options but cannot write (sell) them, limiting their loss to the premium paid and eliminating liquidation risk. Option writing, which serves as a yield-enhancement strategy, is reserved exclusively for the exchange and certain market makers.
Binance accompanied the launch with educational videos and standard risk disclosures in line with the ADGM regulatory framework. There are plans to expand the options offering to other underlying assets, as well as the possibility of limited option writing for retail investors under stricter rules.
It is important to note that the new options offering is not available to users from the European Economic Area (EEA), as announced on Binance's official Telegram channel. Croatian investors, who are part of the EEA, therefore cannot trade these options directly on the platform. Gold and silver perpetual futures contracts, however, remain part of Binance's offering for international users outside the EEA, and their impressive volumes suggest strong crypto community interest in traditional commodities.
