RWA Perpetual Futures Trading Volume Nears Bitcoin on Hyperliquid, Binance
The trading volume of perpetual futures tied to real-world assets (RWAs) has reached nearly as high as Bitcoin perpetuals on two major platforms, Hyperliquid and Binance. According to Talos, RWA perpetual futures generated $61.7 billion in combined seven-day volume, which is 99.2% of the volume of Bitcoin perpetuals on these platforms. Tokenized equity contracts accounted for 57.8% of this total, while commodities made up 28.2%. The value of on-chain RWAs has grown to around $36.8 billion, excluding stablecoins.
Crypto exchanges have been expanding their offerings beyond cryptocurrencies by listing tokenized stocks and commodities alongside digital assets. Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of Circle, stated that growing RWA trading on Hyperliquid signals a shift away from speculating on endogenous digital commodities.
The trend continues into the new week, with RWA perpetual trading volume already reaching $37.2 billion as of this week's current data. Equity-linked contracts made up $22.8 billion of this total, followed by commodities at $9.1 billion and indexes at $4.2 billion. ETFs contributed around $338 million, while foreign exchange, pre-IPO, and other RWA contracts made up the remainder.
Perpetual futures have been touted as a dominant trading instrument beyond cryptocurrencies due to their advantages such as 24/7 trading, the absence of contract expiries, simpler position management, and continuous price discovery. Intercontinental Exchange CEO Jeffrey Sprecher has urged regulators to create a level playing field for 24/7 on-chain perpetual futures, arguing that existing market structures should not prevent the development of blockchain-based trading.
Despite this growth, RWA perpetuals remain a relatively small segment of the broader crypto derivatives market. Talos' data shows aggregate futures trading volume of around $821.4 billion over the past seven days, with tracked RWA perpetuals accounting for roughly 7.5% of the total.