a16z Explores How Surging Onchain Perpetuals and RWA Expansion Challenge Traditional Finance

Perpetual contracts have no expiration date, allowing traders to maintain leveraged long or short positions using margin. Economist Robert Shiller proposed the concept in 1993, and BitMEX brought it to crypto in 2016 with XBTUSD. Round-the-clock trading, no rollover requirements and high capital efficiency are helping perpetuals meet retail demand for short-term leverage while extending onchain price discovery to equities and commodities.

a16z crypto published a report by Jay Drain on April 9, 2026. It found that perpetual-contract trading volume on major CEXs reached $86.2 trillion in 2025, up 47% year on year. Volume on major DEXs surged 346% to $6.7 trillion, equivalent to 7.8% of CEX volume, up from 2.5% a year earlier. RWA recently accounted for as much as 44% of Hyperliquid’s trading volume, with underlying assets including NVIDIA, SpaceX, silver and crude oil.