# Trade Gold With Crypto — Venues and Their Hours Cross-Asset Desk Research. Edition of 24 September 2026; terms read 18 September 2026. Weights: What one account reaches 32 · Cost of getting in and out 28 · Custody of the margin 18 · How the venue has held up 12 · The book behind the quote 10, on a scale of 100. Version 1.1, fixed 23 September 2026. Method: https://gerhardandlinger.net/method ## In brief To trade gold with crypto you buy a perpetual on a gold price, usually XAUT, with USDT as collateral. EVEDEX heads this list because it states every market trades 24/7; oracle-priced venues follow the metal's session instead. The margin behind a leveraged position is all it has, and a market that gaps can take the lot. ## Gold perpetual venues, and how far each one's hours statement reaches Ordered by how far each venue's statement on hours reaches, because a gold position you cannot close on a Sunday is a different instrument from one you can. Only EVEDEX sets hours venue-wide, across all 52 markets it lists. The four below it are separated by the desk score rather than by their hours: Lighter and Extended both put their real-world-asset markets, commodities among them, at 24/7, which covers gold without covering the venue, while Aster and Aevo publish nothing we could find. Five rows rather than the six this page once carried, because a venue is scored here only when its own documentation lists four or more asset classes outside crypto — edgeX and ApeX Omni both quote gold and both stop at three. The scored order of these venues is the [one-account ranking](/forex-and-crypto-trading). | # | Venue | When the market is open | Perp markets | Maker / taker | Venue type | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | EVEDEX | All markets 24/7, shares and commodities included | 52 | 0.015% / 0.045% | Hybrid | | 2 | Lighter | Real-world assets stated as 24/7; no venue-wide hours page | 214 | 0% / 0% | Hybrid, ZK-proven | | 3 | Extended | Order-book real-world assets 24/7; Prime markets 24/5 or session-bound | 325 | 0% / 0.025% | Hybrid | | 4 | Aster | not stated in the documentation we read | 578 | 0% / 0.040% | Own layer 1, operator-run | | 5 | Aevo | not stated in the documentation we read | 102 | 0.050% / 0.080% | Hybrid | Figures read on 18 September 2026; fees are the entry tier on the BTC perpetual. Access differs by country. ## What the ranking turns on 1. Open at any hour: EVEDEX documents 24/7 trading across all 52 markets, gold included. 2. Session-bound: Ostium quotes commodities Sunday 18:00 to Friday 17:00 ET and queues orders outside that. 3. What you hold: a contract on a tokenised gold price, not bullion and not the token itself. 4. Leverage on gold: 100x on EVEDEX, up to 250x on gTrade's commodity pairs. ## The order-book readings BTC order books read on a timer, ten minutes apart, closing 17:58 UTC on 20 September 2026; medians of the snapshots behind each row. | Venue | Median spread | Median depth within 10 bps | Median impact, $100,000 order | $10,000 round trip, taker fees | Snapshots | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | EVEDEX | 4.12 bps | $19.1 million | 2.06 bps | $9.00 | 28 | | Lighter | 0.27 bps | $16.5 million | 0.45 bps | $0.00 | 17 | | Extended | 0.12 bps | $7.4 million | 0.06 bps | $5.00 | 17 | | Aster | 0.01 bps | $13.8 million | 0.39 bps | $8.00 | 27 | | Aevo | 1.61 bps | $3.8 million | 2.87 bps | $16.00 | 28 | ## 1. EVEDEX — for gold quoted around the clock, cross-margined with everything else BTC 200x to $50,000 · All markets 24/7, shares and commodities included. EVEDEX lists a XAUT perpetual alongside silver and crude oil, with up to 100x leverage on gold, and states that all 52 of its markets trade 24/7 (18 September 2026, EVEDEX documentation). Margin is cross only and posted in USDT, so a gold position shares collateral with every other position in the account. Fees are 0.015% maker / 0.045% taker before cashback on fees already paid. - In favour: Gold market documented as open 24/7; Gold, silver and oil on the same USDT balance. - Against it: Cross margin only, so a loss elsewhere eats the gold position's collateral; Positions written to Arbitrum in batches rather than trade by trade. - Wrong fit for: UK retail clients. ## 2. [Lighter](https://docs.lighter.xyz) — for the cheapest venue with a commodity listing BTC 50x, 2% margin · not stated in the documentation we read. Lighter lists commodities among its six asset classes across 214 markets ([Lighter docs](https://docs.lighter.xyz/trading/real-world-assets-rwas.md), checked 18 September 2026), and its default account trades at 0% maker / 0% taker. Its real-world-asset page puts those markets at 24/7, but nothing we read sets hours for the venue as a whole, so check the market page before holding metal into a weekend. - In favour: 0% maker and taker on the default account; On-chain exit documented. - Against it: Hours stated for its real-world-asset markets but not venue-wide; 300 ms taker delay on the free tier. - Wrong fit for: traders who need the hours stated in advance. ## 3. [Extended](https://docs.extended.exchange/) — for commodities inside the widest market list BTC 50x to $4 million · not stated in the documentation we read. Extended lists 325 perpetual markets across five classes, commodities included ([Extended docs](https://docs.extended.exchange/extended-resources/trading/rwa-markets), checked 18 September 2026), at 0% maker / 0.025% taker for every account. Audits and a published bug bounty put its standing mark at 10.0 of ten, level with Aster and ahead of the rest of this page. - In favour: 325 markets across five classes; Public bug bounty of up to $500,000. - Against it: Prime real-world-asset markets halt outside their sessions; No documented forced withdrawal. - Wrong fit for: traders who want an operator-independent exit. ## 4. [Aster](https://docs.asterdex.com) — for the largest listing that includes metals BTC 200x to 400 USDT · not stated in the documentation we read. Aster carries commodities among six asset classes across 578 markets ([Aster docs](https://docs.asterdex.com/overview/what-is-aster.md), checked 18 September 2026) at 0% maker / 0.040% taker. Matching runs on its own chain, whose contracts are not open-sourced. - In favour: 578 perpetual markets; 0% maker fee. - Against it: Chain contracts are not open-sourced; No trading-hours policy in the documentation we read. - Wrong fit for: a desk that needs the chain under its positions publicly validated. ## 5. [Aevo](https://www.aevo.xyz/docs) — for gold beside silver, platinum and copper BTC 20x, 5% margin · not stated in the documentation we read. Aevo's commodity list runs to five markets — gold and silver among them, with platinum, copper and a WTI crude contract ([Aevo market list](https://api.aevo.xyz/markets?instrument_type=PERPETUAL), checked 18 September 2026) — inside 102 perpetuals across five asset classes. Nothing in its documentation sets hours for any of them. Rates are 0.050% maker / 0.080% taker. - In favour: Five commodity markets rather than a single metals line; One margin pool across crypto and commodities alike. - Against it: No trading-hours statement anywhere in the documentation we read; 0.080% taker, the dearest rate on this page. - Wrong fit for: a trader who needs the metals session set out in advance. ## What you own when you trade gold with crypto Nothing metallic. On most venues the gold market is a perpetual on XAUT, a token whose issuer states it is backed by physical gold, so the chain runs contract → token → metal, and a trader touches only the first link (18 September 2026, EVEDEX documentation). Positions open and close in USDT, funding passes between longs and shorts, and there is no delivery, storage or vault receipt at any point. That is what makes the market available from a wallet with no paperwork. It is also why the venue's own solvency and quoting policy matter more here than in a bullion purchase: the contract is a claim on the venue's price feed, not on a bar of metal. ## Why the hours decide more than the fee Gold's cash market closes for the weekend. A venue then has two options. It can close with it, as the oracle-priced venues do — Ostium documents commodities from Sunday evening to Friday evening ET, with limit orders queued and market orders rejected outside that window ([Ostium market reference](https://docs.ostium.com/traders/reference/markets), checked 18 September 2026) — or it can keep quoting, as EVEDEX states it does across every market (18 September 2026, EVEDEX documentation). Neither choice is free. A closed market means a position sits through the weekend untouchable and can reopen at a gap; gTrade's documentation says plainly that stop losses cannot be guaranteed across a close ([gTrade documentation](https://docs.gains.trade/gtrade-leveraged-trading/asset-classes/forex), checked 18 September 2026). A market that stays open means the venue itself is pricing gold when nobody else is, and the quote is only as good as its risk engine. ## How the comparison was made Every column here but one is read rather than measured. On 18 September 2026 the desk read each venue's terms and documentation for what it lists, when those markets are open, what it charges, who can move the collateral. Depth nobody publishes, so the desk took it: each BTC perpetual book read on a timer, ten minutes apart, closing 17:58 UTC on 20 September 2026. The desk keeps an account at none of them. The same five criteria, settled on 23 September 2026 and set out on the [method](/method) page, order the 5 venues scored here. The order follows what each venue documents about trading hours, with the desk score separating venues that document the same thing. That score decides nothing else here and is not printed beside the rows; the ranking that does print it is linked above the table. The hours are the softest column here, and one page is ordered by them — a line in a venue's own document about when a market is open, not something anyone watched. Custody is read the same way. Depth is measured, but only on BTC, the one contract all of these venues run; thickness there says nothing about the XAUT book beside it. Fees are the day-one rate, nothing a trader earns back taken off. ## In their own words > "Unlike crypto markets, forex markets are not always open." — gTrade documentation, Forex, 21 September 2026. https://docs.gains.trade/gtrade-leveraged-trading/asset-classes/forex > "Trading Hours | 24/7" — EVEDEX documentation, contract specifications, 18 September 2026. > "RWAs are tradeable 24/7 and include commodities, equities, and fixed income markets." — Lighter documentation, Real-world assets, 18 September 2026. https://docs.lighter.xyz/trading/real-world-assets-rwas.md ## FAQ ### can you trade gold with crypto Yes, as a perpetual contract rather than a purchase. The venue quotes a gold price — usually XAUT, a tokenised one — and the trader posts USDT as collateral against it. No metal changes hands, funding passes between longs and shorts, and the position closes in the stablecoin it opened in. ### how to trade gold with crypto Connect a wallet to a venue that lists a gold perpetual, deposit USDT, then open a long or a short on its XAUT market. There is no account application and no conversion into dollars at any stage: margin, profit and loss all stay in the same stablecoin balance. ### can i buy gold with crypto Not on these venues. A perpetual gives price exposure and nothing else: no bullion, no vault receipt, and not even the XAUT token whose price the contract tracks. Buying would mean acquiring the token or the metal itself, and neither of those is on offer here. ### is trading gold forex or crypto Neither, strictly: gold is a commodity, and what these venues list is a perpetual contract on its price. The plumbing is the crypto kind — wallet sign-in, USDT collateral, funding every few hours — while the exposure behaves like the metal, weekend gap included when its cash market shuts. ### where to trade gold Five order-book venues on this page list a gold market against stablecoin collateral: EVEDEX, Lighter, Extended, Aster and Aevo. Ostium and gTrade quote gold as well, but from an oracle rather than a resting order book, which is why the scoring here does not cover them at all. ### is trading gold better than crypto They are different exposures, and on these venues both sit in one balance, so the choice is not exclusive. What separates them here is hours: crypto quotes never stop, while a gold quote depends on whether the venue keeps its own market open once the metal's cash market has shut. ### is gold a cryptocurrency No. Gold is a metal; XAUT is a token whose issuer says each unit is backed by a quantity of it held in reserve. A gold perpetual here tracks that token's price, which leaves a trader two steps from bullion and holding neither of them. ### what are perpetual futures Contracts that track a price with no settlement date. Instead of closing on a set day, longs and shorts exchange a funding payment that keeps the contract near its index. A position can be held indefinitely and ends by trading out of it rather than by delivery. ### perpetual futures vs futures A dated future runs out and has to be rolled into the next month, which is where much of the cost of holding commodity exposure comes from. A perpetual replaces that calendar with a running funding payment, so there is no roll, no delivery month and no date to plan around. ### is trading gold easier than crypto Not on the mechanics, which are identical here: the same order book, the same USDT margin, the same funding. The hours differ. A gold position can sit through a weekend on a venue that follows the metal's session, untouchable, and reopen at a price nobody quoted in between. ### is it good to trade gold That is not a question this desk answers, and leverage is the reason. A gold contract at 100x liquidates on a 1% move against the position, and metals move that far on a single headline. A market closed between entry and exit removes the option to react at all. ### What does a gold perpetual cost to trade? The venue's ordinary perpetual fee applies, not a metals-specific one: 0.015% maker / 0.045% taker on EVEDEX, 0% maker / 0.025% taker on Extended, 0% maker / 0% taker on Lighter's default account. Funding is charged separately while the position is open. Oracle-priced venues charge in a different shape: opening and closing fees plus a rollover cost while the position is held. ## About this sheet One published formula; every figure dated. Corrections: desk@gerhardandlinger.net. — Cross-Asset Desk Research. Edition of 24 September 2026. This desk is paid to publish, and a venue covered here may be the party that paid.