Jul 29, 2026, 10:00 a.m.
3 min read
Summary
- Binance is launching European-style options on gold and silver, settled in USDT via its ADGM-regulated Nest Exchange, after strong demand for its metals perpetual futures.
- The new contracts reference a benchmark built from multiple third-party price feeds, and retail traders may buy calls and puts but are barred from writing options, limiting their downside to the premium paid.
- Binance says the metals options are part of a broader push to offer compliant, crypto-native exposure to traditional assets and plans to expand the options suite and potentially allow limited retail writing under stricter rules.
Need evidence of just how popular traditional assets have become with the crypto crowd?
Look no further than Binance, the world’s largest digital asset exchange by volume. After seeing billions of dollars in trading on perpetual futures tied to gold and silver, the exchange on Wednesday rolled out options on the same two metals.
These options are going live today through Nest Exchange Limited, the company’s Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM)-regulated exchange. They build directly on the strong demand for Binance’s gold and silver perpetual futures, which have been available to trade on the exchange since January.
“We’ve seen strong demand for our commodity perpetuals since introducing them earlier this year, and commodity options build on that momentum. With gold hitting record highs and investors seeking inflation hedges outside traditional equities, Binance’s commodity options offer users additional compliant, crypto-native ways to diversify without leaving the platform,” Shunyet Jan, head of exchange and trading at Binance, said in an email.
Options are derivative contracts used by traders to hedge price volatility risks. A call option offers asymmetric upside exposure in the underlying asset for a small upfront payment, much like a lottery ticket. A put option represents an insurance against price drops.
Exchanges typically follow a playbook when offering derivatives as a product. They start with futures to build a deep, liquid order book and tight spreads, and only once that core market is humming do they layer on options as a second wave of more complex, higher‑margin products.
A Binance representative shared volume figures for gold and silver perpetual futures that underscore their popularity. Gold perpetuals, according to the representative, have hit a peak daily volume of $7.77 billion, while silver perpetuals reached $7.27 billion. These peaks represented roughly 3–8% of COMEX gold volume and 9–20% of COMEX silver volume at that time.
“The volume growth suggests that when access to traditional market exposure becomes simpler and more integrated, user participation can ramp up quickly,” the representative said. “Liquidity can become relevant quickly.”
The new options are European-style and settled in USDT. The contracts reference a weighted average of prices drawn from multiple independent third-party data vendors that report the traditional gold and silver markets. This approach produces a robust, market-representative benchmark that does not rely on any single venue or token, according to Binance.
Retail exclusion
Retail investors can buy call and put options on gold and silver, but they can’t go short, Binance said. Think of it as being allowed to buy bullish or bearish insurance, but not to sell insurance, what options traders call writing.
For retail investors, this setup caps losses at the premium paid for purchase and strips out the liquidation risk that comes with being short options.
Writing options is a popular yield‑enhancement strategy, where the premium collected compensates you for taking on the risk of sharp moves in the underlying asset. But it’s dangerous, demands high risk tolerance and sizeable capital, and carries the potential for large losses if markets swing violently. As a result, Binance is limiting gold and silver options writing to the exchange and designated market makers.
Binance is pairing the launch with client-education videos and the usual risk disclosures required under its ADGM framework. The firm also plans to expand the options suite to other underlying assets, while exploring the possibility of limited retail options writing under tighter rules.
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Crypto Flows, Share and the Selective Rotation
Crypto Flows, Share and the Selective Rotation
Markets repositioned since June, but Binance held share (~55% user funds, ~24% spot) and drew net inflows in early July while the tracked market saw outflows.
Jul 22, 2026
Markets repositioned since June, but Binance held share (~55% user funds, ~24% spot) and drew net inflows in early July while the tracked market saw outflows.
Why it matters:
Markets repositioned since June, but Binance held share (~55% user funds, ~24% spot) and drew net inflows in early July while the tracked market saw outflows.