Polymarket unveiled perpetual futures across multiple asset classes, adding gold and silver to a new slate that also includes oil. Two of the newcomers mirror the Brent and West Texas Intermediate benchmarks and never expire. Perpetuals have built-in leverage and let traders dial up their exposure, and Polymarket said in a social media post that customers can access as much as 20 times leverage.
The oil-linked contracts will trade offshore and are off-limits to US-based users. That positioning puts Polymarket up against platforms such as Hyperliquid and Binance for now. Polymarket's oil perpetuals run continuously, while a rival design from Kalshi would operate all day on weekdays rather than nonstop.
The launch lands a day after news that Kalshi is seeking approval for its own perpetual tied to West Texas Intermediate. If regulators sign off, it would be the first such contract to list on a regulated US venue. Bloomberg has reported that Kalshi's weekday-only, round-the-clock schedule was crafted to address issues the Commodity Futures Trading Commission raised about trading outside regular market hours.
Perpetual futures surged in use during the Iran war, when traditional futures markets were closed and these were among the limited avenues to trade oil. Ever since, weekend activity has become a flashpoint, with critics arguing it could sway prices once standard markets reopen. The capacity for retail traders to take on outsize risk is a central worry, too. Polymarket had flagged plans for this product set back in April, though it wasn't clear then whether oil would make the cut.
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Around-the-clock access and leverage can be tempting, but they also magnify moves, good and bad. If more venues adopt perpetual oil trading, expect headlines about volatility and price signals to pop up outside traditional market hours. For anyone watching energy costs or inflation, that means oil's story could shift while the usual markets are sleeping.
