Key Highlights
- RWA perpetual futures volume reached $117.3 billion in August, up 44-fold from a year earlier.
- Onchain venues accounted for 86% of August volume, or about $101 billion, versus roughly $16 billion on centralized exchanges.
- Open interest climbed to $4.8 billion, nearly 30 times higher than the $161 million recorded in July 2025.
Monthly trading volume in real-world asset perpetual futures reached $117.3 billion in August, according to a report from a16z crypto. The figure marked a 44-fold increase from the same period a year earlier. Open interest, which measures the notional value of outstanding contracts, stood at $4.8 billion.
According to the official report posted on September 24, Onchain venues accounted for 86% of the August volume, or roughly $101 billion, compared with about $16 billion on centralized exchanges.
These contracts, known as RWA perps, provide exposure to the prices of traditional assets such as stocks, gold, and other commodities without requiring ownership of the underlying assets. Unlike standard futures, they lack a fixed expiration date. Some platforms offer continuous trading, including on weekends when conventional commodity and equity markets are closed.
Volume trends and market shift
The report further noted that volume recovered after a decline in April and reached a high of $145.1 billion in July before easing to $117.3 billion in August. Even with the pullback, the monthly total remained substantially higher than levels recorded a year prior.
Early activity concentrated on centralized exchanges, which handled two-thirds or more of monthly volume through November 2025. The split became more even by December. Onchain venues expanded their share through 2026. Centralized exchange volume peaked in March and declined through July, while onchain volume continued to rise.
The shift coincided with infrastructure changes, including Hyperliquid’s October 2025 launch of HIP-3. The upgrade allowed builders to deploy perpetual futures markets on the network’s shared trading infrastructure. RWA markets were among the early deployments. Onchain RWA perp volume across multiple venues rose to about $4 billion in October and reached roughly half of tracked activity by December.
Composition of trading activity
The mix of assets traded has changed. A year earlier, commodities accounted for 84% of RWA perp volume and remained the largest category through June. By August, equities represented 48% of volume, commodities 28% and indices 18%.
Open interest grew from $161 million in July 2025 to $4.8 billion in August 2026, a nearly 30-fold increase. It stayed near record levels in August despite lower trading volume. Equity open interest surpassed commodities in June, reaching $1.6 billion against $1.2 billion. Equity trading volume later overtook commodities. In August, equity open interest stood at $2.2 billion and commodity open interest at $1.6 billion.
Related developments in derivatives markets
In late August, market maker DWF Labs noted that RWA perpetuals remained 30 to 60 times smaller than crypto perps and CME equity futures. The firm reported that RWA perps had accounted for as much as 37% of daily on-chain perp volume in July, doubling their share over four months. Stocks and commodities led activity at the time, with equity trading increasing more rapidly.
On September 19, Payward, the parent company of Kraken, filed to offer single-stock perpetual futures to U.S. traders. The initial list included 10 U.S. equities: Tesla, SPCX, Nvidia, Broadcom, Micron Technology, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Palantir. The company also stated it was working toward extended trading hours.
On September 22, Russia’s Moscow Exchange began trading automatically rolling futures on five cryptocurrency indices covering Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, XRP, and Tron. The contracts are available only to qualified investors, structured as one-day futures with automatic rollover, cash-settled in rubles and quoted in U.S. dollars based on exchange indices. The contracts are cash-settled in Russian rubles rather than physically delivered.
Access restrictions apply in the United States. A limited number of regulated centralized platforms offer products similar to perpetual futures to U.S. persons, with only one venue approved for a single contract at present. Most other centralized and decentralized exchanges restrict U.S. persons from trading true perpetual futures.
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