LMAX Group has launched a gold perpetual futures contract that trades 24 hours a day, seven days a week, expanding a derivatives suite that previously covered only cryptocurrency pairs.
The XAU/USD instrument, announced on Wednesday morning, is a margin-based, USD-settled derivative with no expiry date. It is designed to let institutional clients hedge gold exposure over weekends, when traditional futures markets on exchanges like CME are closed.
“Access to gold exposure should not stop when the underlying market closes,” Jenna Wright, managing director of digital assets at LMAX Group, said. “For institutions managing exposure across spot and derivatives, continuity is key. As market infrastructure evolves, the priority remains consistency of access.”
The product addresses a specific problem. In conventional gold markets, trading halts from Friday evening to Sunday evening. Positions cannot be adjusted while geopolitical and macroeconomic events continue to develop. When markets reopen on Monday, prices can gap sharply from the Friday close, creating losses for leveraged traders and hedgers who could not adjust positions.
With gold prices having surged past $5,500 per ounce in early 2026, driven by central bank de-dollarization, geopolitical tensions and uncertainty around Federal Reserve independence, unhedged weekend exposure has become more significant.
Building on the crypto model
LMAX first launched perpetual futures in September 2025 with BTC/USD and ETH/USD contracts offering leverage up to 100x. The gold product applies the same structure, removing the need to roll contracts at monthly or quarterly expiry dates.
The contract is accessible via the LMAX API and through Gold-i’s technology network. LMAX adopted MetaQuotes’ Ultency matching engine in early February 2026 to support low-latency order processing for MT5-connected clients.
LMAX CEO David Mercer has framed the move as part of a broader institutional shift. “A 24/7 capital market demands more than faster trading,” Mercer said. “It requires new thinking across risk, liquidity and settlement.”
LMAX is not alone in bridging crypto-native product structures with traditional commodities. Binance launched USDT-settled gold and silver perpetual futures in January 2026, offering round-the-clock precious metals trading.
The product is available now across the LMAX perpetual futures range.
