Gold's 15-minute markets on Kalshi eclipse Ethereum within weeks of debut
Within a short time following their debut, Kalshi's rapid-fire gold trading markets accumulated roughly $5 million in September fees, outperforming Ether's $2.6 million by almost double.
Within just weeks following their August introduction, Kalshi's rapid 15-minute gold trading markets accumulated almost double the trading fees compared to similar Ether markets during September.
Traders using the gold contracts, which allow participants to speculate on gold's directional movement within 15-minute windows, produced approximately $5 million in estimated fees throughout the month, while Ether contracts brought in $2.6 million, based on data from Predict Charts. Bitcoin maintained its position as the leading market, accumulating $60.4 million in estimated fees.
This expansion in rapid-duration gold markets arrives as Kalshi experiences broader growth across its commodities segment. In September, the company reported that commodities trading volume had climbed to $400 million in just seven months, representing more than quadruple the volume its cryptocurrency markets had achieved at a comparable point in their development.
Crypto markets demonstrated the potential for new categories on Kalshi to scale from tens of millions to billions in monthly volume.
Kalshi
Available data reveal that following their December introduction, Bitcoin's 15-minute markets emerged as Kalshi's largest market series outside of parlays by July. The rapid-duration Ether contracts experienced substantial growth as well, expanding from 6.1 million contracts to 233 million between January and July 2026.
However, even as Ether's 15-minute contracts continued their ascent to 318 million in September, they found themselves surpassed by gold, which logged 542 million contracts traded during that same month.
Short duration markets make up most of non-sport fees
Rapid-duration financial markets are increasingly representing a more substantial portion of Kalshi's overall business operations. An analysis conducted by InGame on Tuesday revealed that 15-minute crypto, commodity and financial markets produced $20.4 million in fees during the seven-day period ending October 5, representing 80% of the platform's non-sport fee generation throughout that timeframe.
The InGame analysis additionally discovered that 15-minute markets yield higher fee revenue. Over the previous week, InGame's estimates showed that short-duration markets represented 13% of Kalshi's overall trading volume while contributing 20% of its total fees.
This is because Kalshi uses a fee formula that depends on the odds of a contract — fees are higher as a share of volume on contracts priced at close to 50/50 odds than they would be on the biggest favorites or longshots.
Daniel O'Boyle, InGame journalist