USDT gold and silver options expand crypto’s push into commodity markets

The newest gold derivatives on the market do not settle in dollars; they settle in Tether. Binance listed European-style gold and silver options on July 29, cash-settled in USDT through its ADGM-regulated Nest Exchange, the exchange said, following the USDT-settled metals perpetuals it introduced in January.

"We've seen strong demand for our commodity perpetuals since introducing them earlier this year, and commodity options build on that momentum," said Shunyet Jan, head of exchange and trading at Binance.

"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."

Gold was not at a record when the options were listed, and spot traded near $4,676 an ounce on August 25 against the $5,597 peak set on January 29.

One margin balance, many markets

MEXC launched zero-fee gold and silver futures in January, quoted in USDT and USDC pairs.

Wojciech Kaszycki, founder and chairman of Mobilum Technologies, described the change in what a crypto balance is for on the On The Margin podcast.

"The only difference is that we are not saying now spend your crypto. We are saying deposit your crypto, use it as a collateral, borrow against it and use your wealth freely," Kaszycki said.

Bruno Caratori, co-founder and global chief executive of crypto asset manager Hashdex, has pointed to Hyperliquid as the venue where that logic went furthest.

"Hyperliquid is one that has been able to find product market fit outside of trading crypto assets alone," Caratori said on the same podcast.

"You can go on Hyperliquid and trade a perpetual swap of oil, of the S&P 500, of gold."

S&P Dow Jones Indices licensed the S&P 500 to Trade[XYZ] on March 18, the first licensed perpetual on that benchmark. Ostium lists a comparable book of commodity and equity index perps, cash-settled in stablecoins.

"Very contrarian thesis at the time when we first started the company that perpetuals were going to be the largest category in blockchain and that TradFi or traditional asset perpetuals would be the biggest blockbuster product to come out of crypto after stable coins," said Kaledora Kiernan-Linn, co-founder and chief executive of Ostium, on the On The Margin podcast.

Why gold is the wedge

Streamex issues a gold-backed token, GLDY, that pays up to 4% annualized yield by leasing the metal to jewellers through partner Monetary Metals.

"Now all of a sudden gold is no longer the pet rock that sort of sits there. You actually have an interest component to it," chief executive Henry McPhie said on the On The Margin podcast.

"If you have an asset that gives you gold price plus up to 400 basis points, it's all of a sudden a much better asset for people to own."

"Instead of just taking that gold and sitting at a bank vault, we make that gold active," McPhie said of the leasing arrangement.

Central banks have bought an average of about 1,000 tonnes of gold a year over the past four years, double the 500-tonne average of the preceding decade, the World Gold Council's 2026 reserves survey found.

Of its 76 respondents, 89% expect global official holdings to rise over the next 12 months and 74% expect dollar holdings to fall as a share of reserves.

Streamex wants a slice of that: "Our goal is by the end of 26 to have a billion dollars in GLDY," McPhie said.

The regulatory drag

Caratori has argued that Washington's caution about crypto was partly about the dollar itself. "The US perhaps had the most to lose in terms of losing control of some things," he said.

"The US has direct or indirect influence in how dollars flow the world over. And now if there's an alternative way for this to happen, this is not in our interest. So that ideology, I think, delayed the development of crypto in the US by a lot."

That changed on March 17, when the CFTC joined the SEC in a joint interpretation separating digital commodities from securities and covering airdrops and staking.

"For far too long, American builders, innovators, and entrepreneurs have awaited clear guidance on the status of crypto assets under the federal securities and commodity laws. With today's interpretation, the wait is over," CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said.

"Chairman Atkins and I are committed to fostering a regulatory environment that allows the crypto industry to flourish in the United States with clear and rational rules of the road."

What to watch

Tether has moved its own capital the same way, buying 70% of Adecoagro for about $600 million, a South American sugar and dairy producer. Reuters reported the aim is to embed USDT in physical commodity settlement.

"Our acquisition of Adecoagro reflects Tether's commitment to advancing sustainable, real-world infrastructure in regions where investment has historically been limited," chief executive Paolo Ardoino said at the time.

Gold and silver derivatives are older than the venue listing them, so the contracts are not the story. "Macro the new reality TV is sort of our quippy way of putting this," Kiernan-Linn said of the demand behind cross-asset perps.

What is worth tracking is that a large exchange picked USDT as the settlement currency for traditional-asset contracts, that MEXC and Hyperliquid arrived at the same answer, and how regulators outside ADGM treat the contracts next.