Gate Precious Metals Perpetual Contracts Analysis: How do Gold and Silver achieve 24-hour crypto trading?

1. Why Are Precious Metals Entering the Crypto Derivatives Market

For a long time, gold and silver have been regarded as typical traditional financial safe-haven assets, with trading mainly concentrated in banks, futures exchanges, and OTC markets. However, traditional precious metal trading generally faces issues such as limited trading hours, high participation thresholds, and low settlement efficiency.

With the development of the crypto derivatives market, more and more traditional assets are being integrated into off-chain contract systems. Through perpetual contracts, precious metals can break through trading time restrictions and achieve high liquidity and 24/7 trading experiences consistent with crypto markets. This is also the core reason behind Gate launching the precious metals zone.

2. What Are Gold and Silver Perpetual Contracts

Precious metals perpetual contracts are derivative contracts without an expiration date, with prices anchored to spot gold (XAU) or silver (XAG), settled and margined in USDT.

Users can participate in price fluctuations without physically holding the metals.

On the Gate platform, precious metals perpetual contracts feature the following characteristics:

• USDT-based settlement, reducing currency exchange and settlement complexity
• Support for leveraged trading, improving capital efficiency
• Price proximity to mainstream precious metals markets through an index price mechanism

This design allows traditional assets to operate like crypto contracts without changing the underlying asset properties.

3. What Does 24-Hour Trading of Precious Metals Mean

Traditional precious metals markets are limited by exchange opening and closing hours, often resulting in price gaps and liquidity vacuums during major macro events. The 7×24-hour mechanism of crypto perpetual contracts enables more continuous price changes, allowing traders to adjust positions at any time.

For precious metals, the significance of 24/7 trading mainly lies in three points:

• Immediate response to macro events: interest rate decisions, geopolitical risks, and USD fluctuations can be quickly reflected in prices
• More proactive risk management: avoiding passive risks from overnight or weekend trading restrictions
• More comprehensive price discovery: increased trading continuity reduces extreme gaps

4. Which Trading Strategies Are Suitable for Precious Metals Perpetual Contracts

In practical applications, gold and silver perpetual contracts are not only suitable for a single type of user.

• For TradFi-oriented users, they can serve as macro hedging and trend trading tools
• For crypto traders, they can be used to hedge crypto market volatility and balance overall asset risk
• For advanced traders, they can be combined with forex, indices, or crypto assets for cross-market strategy allocation

Precious metal prices are often closely related to USD, interest rate expectations, and risk sentiment, giving them unique value in multi-asset portfolios.

5. Product Logic and Advantages of Gate’s Precious Metals Zone

Gate’s design of precious metals perpetual contracts continues its mature experience in derivatives. Through multi-market price referencing mechanisms, it enhances the stability and transparency of the index price, making the contracts more aligned with real market conditions.

Meanwhile, the precious metals zone is presented independently, allowing users to quickly switch between different asset classes on the contract page, reducing learning and operational costs. This product structure also reflects Gate’s systematic approach to TradFi product layout.

6. A New Trading Paradigm Under the Fusion of TradFi and Crypto

The launch of precious metals perpetual contracts is not just about adding a few trading pairs but signifies a trend: traditional financial assets are being repackaged and utilized in the form of crypto derivatives.

In this model, users no longer need to switch between different platforms but can complete multi-asset allocation, risk management, and strategy execution within the same trading system. By continuously introducing traditional asset underlyings, Gate is promoting the evolution of crypto trading platforms toward comprehensive financial infrastructure.

Click the link to view precious metals contract prices: https://www.gate.com/price/category-metals

Original link: https://www.gate.com/learn/articles/gate-precious-metals-perpetual-contracts-explained-how-gold-and-silver-achieve-24-7-crypto-trading