- Perpetual futures are spreading across traditional finance, including stocks, commodities and private-company equity, becoming a tool for 24-hour trading.
- SpaceX, crude, gold and silver perpetual futures, and overseas stock perpetual futures are emerging as channels for leveraged investment and real-time price discovery.
- Institutions and regulators including Coinbase, Robinhood, CME and the CFTC are stepping up competition and oversight around perpetual futures, leverage and liquidation structures.
Forecast Trend Report by Period
Perpetual futures contracts, a product that gained prominence in crypto markets, are rapidly spreading across traditional finance, including stocks, commodities and stakes in private companies, CoinDesk reported on July 30.
Matthew Fisher, chief executive officer of Katana Network, described the shift as “perpification,” according to the crypto-focused outlet. The term refers to perpetual futures moving beyond a crypto trading instrument and becoming a way to trade nearly any asset.
Fisher pointed to SpaceX’s initial public offering as a prime example. On June 12, when SpaceX listed on Nasdaq, trading volume in SpaceX perpetual futures on Hyperliquid reached a record for the platform. The volume was less than 2% of Nasdaq turnover, but it effectively became the only avenue for retail investors who did not receive IPO allocations to take leveraged positions in SpaceX.
The expansion of perpetual futures is also pronounced in commodities markets. Perpetual futures tied to gold, silver and crude oil ranked among the fastest-growing product groups in derivatives markets earlier this year. On the weekend of Feb. 28, when the US and Israel struck Iran, crude oil perpetual futures enabled price discovery while traditional financial markets were closed, highlighting the utility of round-the-clock trading.
Less-accessible overseas stocks are also being traded through perpetual futures. SK Hynix, the world’s second-largest memory-chip maker, was recently cited as a representative case. Demand to invest in specific companies in real time, while bypassing local trading hours and investment restrictions, is flowing into the perpetual futures market.
Established financial firms and exchanges are also accelerating product launches. Kalshi, the US prediction-market platform, introduced the first crypto perpetual futures product regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Coinbase has rolled out stock-index futures using a perpetual structure. Robinhood launched perpetual futures products in Europe, while CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives exchange, announced plans for 24-hour trading and the introduction of smaller West Texas Intermediate crude contracts.
Regulators are responding as well. On June 22, the CFTC opened a public comment process on the introduction of physically delivered crude oil perpetual futures. In a related move, the agency stopped CME from quickly launching a 24-hour crude contract through self-certification and required a formal review.
“The question of whether perpetual futures will spread has already been settled,” Fisher said. “What matters now is which asset class comes next, where leverage concentrates, and what breaks in the process.”
He said the exchanges that endure will not be those that maximize leverage to attract speculative demand. Instead, they will be the ones that make leverage caps, liquidation structures and user education core elements of the product.
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