Just weeks after launching in August, Kalshi’s 15-minute gold contracts have surpassed similar Ether products in estimated trading fees. According to Predict Charts, September gold fees reached roughly USD 5 million, dwarfing Ether’s USD 2.6 million. Meanwhile, Bitcoin kept its spot as the top earner among the three, pulling in an estimated USD 60.4 million over the course of the month.
Kalshi Gold Markets Outpace Ether in September
Gold contracts saw 542 million trades in September, compared to Ether’s 318 million. While gold’s contract volume was roughly 70% higher than Ether’s, its estimated fees reached nearly double those generated by the comparable Ether markets.
These contracts let participants speculate on 15-minute price movements for gold, forecasting whether values will go up or down. Every market concludes by settling against a designated reference price once the window closes. Participants are purchasing event contracts rather than acquiring physical metal.
Predict Charts estimated these fees by reviewing Kalshi’s trading history, meaning the figures reflect calculated transaction costs rather than official revenue numbers from the platform. Additionally, counting individual contracts captures a different metric of user engagement than measuring total dollar volume.
Ether’s rapid-fire markets grew steadily ahead of the gold rollout. Monthly volume climbed from 6.1 million contracts in January to 233 million by July, eventually hitting 318 million in September. Despite arriving later, gold managed to outpace that September benchmark.
Bitcoin maintained a commanding advantage in estimated revenue. Its September earnings outpaced gold by more than 12 times. These comparisons focus strictly on 15-minute prediction contracts tied to short-term price movements rather than standard cryptocurrency perpetual futures.
Short-Duration Contracts Generate Most Non-Sports Fees
An InGame report released Tuesday revealed that 15-minute markets spanning crypto, commodities, and finance generated USD 20.4 million in fees during the week leading up to October 5. That figure made up about 80% of Kalshi’s USD 25.1 million in estimated non-sports fee revenue.
These quick-turnaround products punched above their weight in fee generation compared to overall trading activity. Over that same seven-day window, the markets comprised 13% of total trading volume but accounted for 20% of all fees. The study factored in maker and taker fees while leaving out market-maker rebates because their exact worth could not be determined.
Kalshi’s fee structure sheds light on this disparity. InGame writer Daniel O’Boyle noted that contracts priced close to even odds accrue higher fees relative to their volume than contracts where the outcome seems heavily favored or unlikely.
According to Kalshi, transaction fees are calculated using a contract’s anticipated payout. The company’s documentation also notes that specific markets feature varying rates, and certain resting orders trigger maker fees when counterparties execute against them.
Kalshi Expands its Commodities Business
Kalshi announced on September 8 that its commodities offerings hit USD 400 million in total trading volume in just seven months—roughly half the time it took for its crypto markets to reach that milestone.
Kalshi reported that within the same timeframe following launch, commodities volume was more than four times higher than crypto’s early figures. This benchmark applies to the wider commodities sector rather than just the September performance of the 15-minute gold lineup.
‘Crypto markets demonstrated the potential for new categories on Kalshi to scale from tens of millions to billions in monthly volume,’ the company said.
While the USD 400 million metric tracks financial volume, the September gold data counts individual contracts. In that same September announcement, Kalshi mentioned filing for perpetual contracts covering gold, silver, and platinum earlier in the summer, calling the rollout imminent without providing a specific release date.
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