Author: Ryan Holloway, a16z Compiled by: Saoirse, Foresight News Perpetual futures trading tied to stocks, gold and other traditional assets are growing rapidly, and more and more of these transactions are moving on-chain. This type of contract is often called a real-world asset perpetual contract (RWA Perps), and traders can obtain price exposure corresponding to traditional assets without actually purchasing the underlying asset. Unlike conventional futures, they do not have a fixed expiration date, and some platforms support 24/7 non-stop trading, covering weekend periods when the commodity market and stock exchanges are closed. Market demand surged. The monitoring platform shows that the monthly trading volume of RWA perpetual contracts reached US$117.3 billion in August, a 44-fold increase in one year; the size of open contracts, which measures traders’ market exposure, reached US$48 billion. The vast majority of transactions occur on the on-chain platform, and currently on-chain trading volume accounts for 86% of the total RWA perpetual contract trading volume. Note: A few centralized platforms regulated by the United States can provide products similar to perpetual futures to American users, but currently only one platform is approved to trade a single perpetual contract variety. All other centralized exchanges and decentralized exchanges restrict US users from participating in true perpetual futures contract trading. It shows that the RWA perpetual contract trading volume expanded significantly during 2025.7-2026.8, and the market focus shifted from CEX to on-chain platforms. The trading volume reached a peak in July and fell slightly in August. After a brief dip in April, transaction volume hit new highs again in May, climbed to a peak of $145.1 billion in July, and fell back to $117.3 billion in August. Even with the pullback, trading volume in August was still 44 times higher than a year ago. In the early days, RWA perpetual contract trading was mainly concentrated on centralized exchanges. As of November 2025, centralized exchanges carried more than two-thirds of the monthly trading volume. By December 2025, the transaction volume on the chain and the centralized market will be basically the same; for most of 2026, the on-chain platform will continue to seize market share. As of August, on-chain platforms processed approximately $101 billion in RWA perpetual contract trading volume, accounting for 86%, while centralized exchanges handled only approximately $16 billion. This figure shows a structural reversal in the trading share of RWA perpetual contracts from 2025.7 to 2026.8. Trading dominance has been transferred from centralized exchanges to on-chain platforms. In August, the proportion of on-chain transactions reached 86%. This market shift roughly coincides with several key infrastructure upgrades, notably Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 upgrade in October 2025. This upgrade allows developers to deploy their own perpetual futures markets relying on HyperCore, a network-shared trading infrastructure. The RWA market is one of the first applications based on this framework and has quickly gained market popularity. RWA perpetual contract trading volume across multiple on-chain platforms quadrupled in October to approximately $4 billion. In December, the on-chain platform undertook half of the RWA perpetual contract transactions within the monitoring scope. After peaking in March, trading volume on centralized exchanges continued to fall into July, while on-chain trading volume continued to rise. The structure of trading products has also changed. A year ago, commodities accounted for 84% of RWA’s perpetual contract trading volume and remained the largest category until June; the market’s trading focus has since shifted to equities. As of August this year, equities accounted for 48% of trading volume, commodities 28% and index products 18%. From 2025.7 to 2026.8, the focus of RWA perpetual contract trading shifted from commodities to stocks; as of August, stocks accounted for 48% of the trading volume, becoming the largest trading category. The open interest of the RWA perpetual contract (i.e. the notional value of the outstanding contract) increased from US$161 million in July 2025 to US$4.8 billion in August 2026, an increase of nearly 30 times. Even as trading volumes retreated, open interest continued to rise in April and remained near all-time highs in August. From 2025.7 to 2026.8, the open position of the RWA perpetual contract increased from US$161 million to US$4.8 billion, an increase of nearly 30 times, and the market stock exposure continued to expand. The transfer of assets to stocks is first reflected in the open interest data, and then reflected in the trading volume. Open interest in equities ($1.6 billion) surpassed commodities ($1.2 billion) in June; a month later, equities trading volume also surpassed commodities. The gap between open interest widened in July and narrowed in August, with $2.2 billion in open interest in equities and $1.6 billion in commodities. From 2025.7 to 2026.8, the focus of RWA’s perpetual contract positions shifted from commodities to stocks. In June 2026, the open positions of stocks completed the overtake. In August, the stock positions reached US$2.2 billion, ranking first. Compared with the traditional derivatives market, the trading volume of RWA perpetual contracts is still relatively small, and the monthly trading volume of futures and options on mature platforms can reach trillions of dollars. But the growth in RWA’s perpetual contract monthly trading volume proves that gaining exposure to traditional assets on-chain is no longer just a fantasy. The next core question is: can RWA perpetual contracts become a regular business for traditional brokers and exchanges.