Perps Trading Seizes Its Moment
Last weekend, Trump did something traders are starting to get very used to – he shared some market-moving intel outside of U.S. trading hours.
His statement, that the U.S. was "getting very close to meeting our objectives" on Iran – caused an S&P 500 futures rally! Then, Saturday night, he flipped – threatening to strike Iranian power plants – the futures sold off! Early Monday, he announced a "complete and total resolution of hostilities" – back up 3.5%. None of these movements happened on the CME or NYSE, which were both closed at the time.
It all happened on Hyperliquid, the predominant perpetuals exchange, where contracts on traditional assets like the S&P 500, oil, and gold are getting hotter and hotter. 2026 has already been full of weekends like this past one that are showing off the power of perps’ 24/7 nature – and it's likely that we'll have more ahead that preach perps to a market filled with traders "monitoring the situation."
David Christopher Jan 15, 2026 • 6 min read
Perp swaps have already caught fire inside crypto – they dwarf spot volume, and have been posting triple‑digit growth year-over-year when most DeFi primitives have stagnated. Every chain is chasing the action. Now, regulation is shifting, Trump-era volatility is validating always-on markets, and retail speculation is structurally elevated.
That convergence has produced a clear proof point: traders are using perpetual markets for traditional assets, showing they are not just “crypto-native” products, but relevant and in some cases superior alternatives to existing financial instruments.
Why Now?
◼️ Friendly Regulation
For most of their existence, perps were effectively banned in the United States. Federal derivatives law treated perpetual swaps as instruments restricted to institutional participants only, locking U.S. retail out entirely. The result was predictable: liquidity, volume, and innovation all went offshore.
The Trump administration has changed this. On March 3, CFTC Chair Selig stated, "We've got to bring [perps] back to the United States." To do that, he claims he'll be issuing guidance on the instruments this spring.
When the CFTC eventually does, regulated U.S. derivatives exchanges will be able to list true perpetuals via a streamlined self-certification process. Some may counter that Coinbase already offers perps, but these are actually long-dated nano futures sporting fixed five-year expirations, rather than true perpetuity.
◼️ Always-On Markets
Trump's "inobservance" of wartime market hours announcements has been a major boon to perps.
The S&P 500 rally, sell-off, and subsequent recovery on Hyperliquid is not an isolated episode. Throughout the Iran conflict buildup, Hyperliquid served as a venue for oil price discovery as declarations and “developments” pushed prices before legacy markets reopened. The same happened for silver and gold earlier this year. In each case, perp markets absorbed the flow, established direction, and left traditional venues playing catch-up by Monday morning.
◼️ Speculative Backdrop
Combine all of this with the fact that the world appears to be in a retail-driven speculative supercycle.
The causes are debatable – rising costs of living, declining social mobility, smartphone proliferation, deregulation – but the trend is clear. As Ryan Watkins and Sunny Shi of Syncracy Capital cite in "The Great Perpification," last year, retail accounted for more than 50% of options volumes with five brokers reporting all-time highs for new accounts. Average U.S. retail futures volumes remain roughly 50% above pre-pandemic levels per CFTC data – the flows are larger, faster, and skewed toward shorter positions.
The irony is that options and futures – the instruments retail currently uses – were designed for risk management, not speculation. In many ways, they're the wrong tool for the job, but perps, on the other hand, are purpose-built for the speculative exposure retail wants right now.
The State of Adoption
The perp thesis finds its clearest expression on Hyperliquid, which has spent the past several months building out what may be the strongest and most transferable proof of concept for perpetuals as a financial instrument.
Hyperliquid and HIP-3
Last November, Hyperliquid launched HIP-3, opening its order book to permissionless listing of new perps markets on any asset with a reliable price feed.
David Christopher Nov 14, 2025 • 6 min read
In the three months following, perp markets launched representing stocks, indices, commodities, and pre-IPO companies. Those markets have driven over $130 billion in volume – perhaps the most successful attempt yet at bringing traditional asset classes onto a blockchain at scale. Around 30% of Hyperliquid's overall volume now comes from TradFi assets, with silver, gold, and oil now regularly topping crypto on daily volumes.
Institutional Recognition
On March 18, S&P DJI granted the first formal license for an S&P 500 perpetual futures contract to TradeXYZ, a HIP-3 deployer on Hyperliquid. It brings official real-time S&P DJI data, settles in USDC, has no expiration, and trades 24/7. Other S&P 500 markets already exist onchain, but all rely on synthetic oracles and go by other names. This one has institutional data licensing behind it.
S&P Dow Jones licenses its data to the CME, NYSE, and Nasdaq. It now also licenses it to a decentralized exchange that didn't exist three years ago.
Jack Inabinet Mar 18, 2026 • 1 min read
What Comes Next
The convergence happening right now – regulatory momentum, proven real-world utility, and surging retail demand – is why perps seem to be on the verge of something much larger than crypto derivatives.
The U.S. regulatory path for perps isn't locked in yet. CFTC guidance, once issued, can be reversed. What gives this shift more permanent footing is the CLARITY Act, which would codify CFTC jurisdiction over digital commodity derivatives and protect it from court challenges. Until it passes, the progress is real but fragile.
The direction is clear: we're entering an entirely new era in markets as perps show real traction and platforms like Hyperliquid prove how they scale.