CoinDesk
Katana Network CEO Matthew Fisher frames the moment as "perpification": the perpetual contract, the 24/7 leveraged instrument crypto built and refined, breaking out of the asset class that birthed it and remaking how every other market gets traded. The tell was SpaceX's June 12 listing. Roughly $80 billion in notional changed hands across Nasdaq and the usual venues, and in parallel a 24/7 leveraged SpaceX perpetual became the single biggest market Hyperliquid had ever run, trading well above the $135 IPO price as a discovery venue for ordinary traders who could never get an allocation. Under 2% of Nasdaq's volume, but a market that didn't exist a cycle ago.
Why it matters
Perps already cover equities (including hard-to-access foreign names like SK Hynix), commodities where gold, silver, and oil perps were the fastest-growing derivatives segment of early 2026, pre-IPO shares, and the first wave of tokenized real-world assets. The U.S. is no longer watching from the sidelines. Kalshi has gone live with the first CFTC-regulated crypto perpetual futures, Coinbase has launched perpetual-style equity-index futures, Robinhood has rolled out perpetual futures across Europe, and the CME announced 24/7 trading plus a one-tenth-size WTI contract aimed at smaller trades. When the biggest U.S. derivatives exchange is shrinking oil contracts for 24/7 retail access, the argument that perps are a crypto niche is over.
Market impact
Regulators are catching up fast. On June 22 the CFTC opened a 67-question request for comment on extending perpetual contracts to physically-delivered crude oil. When the CME tried to self-certify its 24/7 oil contract in July, the CFTC stayed it and forced a full review. The structural prize, and the structural risk, is permissionless market creation: any asset with a reference price and a frustrated audience can now host a perp without asking an exchange's permission. The next wave will be private credit, carbon, freight, and the long tail of real-world assets moving onchain. The leverage question is where the risk concentrates.
Frequently asked questions
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What does "perpification" mean in this context?
It refers to the spread of the perpetual futures contract, the 24/7 leveraged instrument crypto built, into asset classes beyond crypto: equities, commodities, pre-IPO shares, and tokenized real-world assets.
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How big was the SpaceX perpetual market on Hyperliquid?
It became the single biggest market Hyperliquid had ever run during SpaceX's June 12 IPO, trading well above the $135 IPO price, though still under 2% of Nasdaq's roughly $80 billion in notional volume that day.
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Which traditional finance firms are launching perpetual products?
Kalshi has launched CFTC-regulated crypto perpetual futures, Coinbase has rolled out perpetual-style equity-index futures, Robinhood has pushed perpetual futures across Europe, and the CME announced 24/7 trading plus a one-tenth-size WTI oil contract.
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What is the CFTC doing about perpetual oil contracts?
On June 22 the CFTC opened a 67-question request for comment on extending perpetuals to physically-delivered crude oil, and in July it stayed the CME's attempt to self-certify its 24/7 oil contract and forced a full review.
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What is the main risk Fisher flags with perpification?
He warns that perps compress the asset bet and the leverage decision into one instrument, so when millions of new users encounter a "market" as a leveraged position on an asset they have never traded, many will learn about liquidation at 3am on a market that never closes.
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