Crypto Exchanges See Explosive Growth in Stock-Linked Perpetual Contracts

Trading in stock-linked perpetual contracts on centralized crypto exchanges has seen significant growth in 2026, according to WuBlockchain Data Center. The weekly volume of these trades reached $141.84 billion as of August 16, a nearly 79-fold increase from the start of the year.

The market began 2026 with a much lower weekly turnover of $1.8 billion. Since then, the assets SNDK, SKHYNIX, and SPCX have been among those driving concentrated trading activity.

As trading volume has risen, so too has the capital committed to outstanding positions. The weekly open interest in these contracts reached $8.29 billion, a growth of roughly 93 times from the start of the year.