In May 2026, trading volume for perpetual contracts tied to real-world assets soared to $347 billion, a staggering jump from just $230 million at the start of 2025. This explosion highlights a new wave in crypto markets that’s outpacing the earlier enthusiasm around tokenizing assets like stocks or commodities.

Tokenization grabbed headlines when giants like BlackRock and Fidelity started converting traditional assets into digital tokens. Over $34 billion in assets have been tokenized so far, excluding $300 billion in tokenized dollars. But now, traders are flocking to "perpification" using perpetual contracts to gain exposure to commodities, equities, and more. Not only have volumes on decentralized exchanges surged, daily open interest hit $4.5 billion in July alone. Exchanges processed $1.32 trillion in volume by the end of May, a thirteenfold increase compared to all of 2025.

Perpetual contracts offer advantages that traditional futures and options cannot. They trade around the clock, allowing markets to react instantly to events anywhere on the globe. For example, oil prices on platforms like Hyperliquid reflected the Iran conflict well before the CME exchange reopened. In contrast, traditional markets close overnight, leaving traders in the dark. Perps also simplify complexity by removing expiry dates and the intricate calculations of options, while still preserving the potential for speculative gains.

Derivatives tend to outpace spot markets consistently across asset classes, and crypto is no exception. On Hyperliquid, equity perp volumes between March and May were 13 to 20 times higher than tokenized equity spot volume. This shift reflects a broader trend where traders prefer flexible, always-on instruments over static token holdings.

With trading tools evolving, perpetual contracts on real-world assets could redefine how investors access commodities and equities in crypto, challenging traditional finance’s slower and less accessible methods.

This article is for informational purposes and does not constitute financial advice.