Binance Launches Regulated Gold and Silver Perpetual Futures Settled in USDT

Binance has introduced its first regulated perpetual futures linked to traditional financial assets. This offering features contracts based on gold and silver, which are settled in the USDT stablecoin.

Key Takeaways:

Binance has launched regulated perpetual futures for gold and silver, settled in USDT.
This initiative represents a larger effort by cryptocurrency exchanges to diversify into traditional assets.
There is an increasing interest in commodities and tokenized real-world assets, impacting trading activities beyond the crypto landscape.

The newly available product, known as TradFi Perpetual Contracts, allows traders to access conventional assets 24/7, using a perpetual futures structure that is prevalent in the crypto derivatives market.

Binance's initial offerings include contracts labeled XAUUSDT for gold and XAGUSDT for silver, which reflect the price movements of these metals. Additional trading pairs are anticipated in the future.

Binance Launches Regulated Gold and Silver Perpetual Futures Settled in USDT

Binance Obtains ADGM Licenses for Regulated TradFi Perpetuals

The contracts will be issued by Nest Exchange Limited, a Binance entity that is regulated by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).

According to Binance, this makes it the first global digital asset platform to obtain a complete set of licenses under the ADGM framework, thus enabling it to list these contracts under a regulated environment.

Perpetual futures are distinct from traditional futures because they do not have an expiration date. They utilize funding mechanisms to maintain price alignment with the underlying asset.

Binance's TradFi perpetuals are similar to existing crypto perpetual contracts in terms of the currency used for settlements and fee structure, but include pricing and risk controls that are particularly designed to function during periods when traditional markets are closed.

This launch comes at a time when signals indicate that crypto exchanges are actively pursuing growth outside of traditional digital assets.

In December, API updates from Binance suggested that plans for stock-linked perpetual contracts are underway, signaling a broader strategy to integrate traditional markets through derivatives on blockchain technology.

This timing also corresponds with a general shift across various asset classes.

Ki Young Ju, founder of CryptoQuant, recently observed that the flow of capital into Bitcoin has diminished compared to past cycles, while interest in equities and commodities appears to be on the rise.

“Money just rotated to stocks and shiny rocks,” Ju noted.

He stated that a significant market downturn seems unlikely, predicting a trend of “boring sideways” trading in the months ahead.

A flat performance in the first quarter would diverge from historical trends, as January typically yields modest gains for Bitcoin, averaging a 3.8% increase since 2013.

Beyond derivatives, interest in tokenized versions of real-world assets continues to grow.

Research indicates that on-chain representations of stocks and commodities had surpassed $1 billion in assets by late 2025, demonstrating how crypto infrastructure is increasingly facilitating access to traditional markets in innovative ways.

FT Investigation Raises Concerns About Binance Compliance After US Settlement

An investigation conducted by the Financial Times suggests that Binance continued to process a significant volume of suspicious transactions even after agreeing to strengthen its compliance measures as part of a $4.3 billion settlement with U.S. authorities in 2023.

Internal documents reviewed by the newspaper revealed that accounts marked as high-risk remained operational on the platform, with some transactions occurring long after Binance entered a plea agreement with the U.S. Justice Department.

According to the report, 13 high-risk accounts were involved in transactions totaling $1.7 billion between 2021 and 2025, including around $144 million processed after the settlement. Binance has rejected the claims made in the report.

These findings emerge amid intensified scrutiny of Binance’s governance, particularly following President Donald Trump’s pardon of founder Changpeng Zhao in October for violations related to anti-money laundering.

This pardon, combined with increased business relationships between the Trump family and entities linked to Binance, has complicated oversight efforts, according to former intelligence officials.