Written by Ryan Holloway, a16z
Compiled by Saoirse, Foresight News
Perpetual futures trading pegged to stocks, gold, and other traditional assets is growing rapidly, with an increasing number of such trades moving on-chain.
These contracts are commonly referred to as Real-World Asset Perpetuals (RWA Perps), allowing traders to gain price exposure to traditional assets without actually purchasing the underlying assets. Unlike standard futures, they have no fixed expiration date, and some platforms support 24/7 trading, covering weekends when commodity markets and stock exchanges are closed.
Market demand has surged. Monitoring platforms show that the monthly trading volume of RWA perpetual contracts reached $117.3 billion in August, a 44-fold increase year-over-year; the open interest, measuring traders' market exposure, reached $48 billion. The vast majority of trading occurred on-chain, with on-chain volume accounting for 86% of total RWA perpetual contract trading volume.
Note: A limited number of centralized platforms regulated in the U.S. may offer products similar to perpetual futures to U.S. users, but currently only one platform is approved to trade a single perpetual contract type. All other centralized and decentralized exchanges restrict U.S. users from participating in actual perpetual futures contracts.
Show a significant expansion in RWA perpetual contract trading volume from July 2025 to August 2026, with market focus shifting from CEXs to on-chain platforms; trading volume peaked in July and slightly declined in August.
After a brief decline in April, trading volume hit a new high in May, rising to a peak of $145.1 billion in July, before dropping to $117.3 billion in August. Even with the pullback, August’s trading volume was 44 times higher than the same month a year ago.
RWA perpetual trading was initially concentrated primarily on centralized exchanges; as of November 2025, centralized exchanges accounted for more than two-thirds of monthly trading volume. By December 2025, on-chain and centralized market volumes had roughly equalized; for most of 2026, on-chain platforms continued to gain market share. As of August, on-chain platforms processed approximately $101 billion in RWA perpetual trading volume, representing 86%, while centralized exchanges handled only about $16 billion.
The chart shows a structural reversal in RWA perpetual contract trading volume share from July 2025 to August 2026, with trading dominance shifting from centralized exchanges to on-chain platforms, where on-chain trading accounted for 86% in August.
This shift in market dynamics coincided with several key infrastructure upgrades, particularly Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 upgrade launched in October 2025. This upgrade enables developers to deploy their own perpetual futures markets by leveraging HyperCore, the network’s shared trading infrastructure.
The RWA market is among the first applications to be implemented based on this framework, quickly gaining market momentum. On-chain platforms saw RWA perpetual trading volumes quadruple in October, reaching approximately $4 billion. By December, on-chain platforms accounted for half of all RWA perpetual trading within the monitored scope. Centralized exchange volumes peaked in March and steadily declined through July, while on-chain volumes continued to rise.
The structure of trading pairs has also changed. A year ago, commodities accounted for 84% of RWA perpetual contract trading volume and remained the largest category until June; since then, market trading focus has shifted to stocks. As of August this year, stocks make up 48% of trading volume, commodities 28%, and index products 18%.
From July 2025 to August 2026, the focus of RWA perpetual contract trading shifted from commodities to equities; by August, equities accounted for 48% of trading volume, becoming the largest trading category.
The open interest of RWA perpetual contracts, measured by notional value, increased from $161 million in July 2025 to $4.8 billion in August 2026, a nearly 30-fold rise. Even as trading volume declined, open interest continued to rise in April and remained near historical highs in August.
From July 2025 to August 2026, the open interest in RWA perpetual contracts increased from $161 million to $4.8 billion, growing nearly 30-fold, with market exposure continuing to expand.
The shift of assets toward equities first appeared in open interest data, followed by trading volume. In June, open interest in equity products ($1.6 billion) surpassed that of commodities ($1.2 billion); one month later, equity trading volume also exceeded that of commodities. The gap in open interest between the two widened in July and narrowed slightly in August, with equity open interest at $2.2 billion and commodities at $1.6 billion.
From July 2025 to August 2026, the focus of RWA perpetual contract open interest shifted from commodities to equities; equity open interest surpassed commodities in June 2026, reaching $2.2 billion in August, ranking first.
Compared to traditional derivatives markets, the trading volume of RWA perpetual contracts remains relatively small, with futures and options on mature platforms reaching trillions of dollars in monthly volume.
However, the growth in monthly trading volume of RWA perpetual contracts demonstrates that gaining exposure to traditional assets on-chain is no longer just a concept. The next key question is: Can RWA perpetual contracts become a standard offering for traditional brokers and exchanges?