CryptoSlate
RWA perps cleared $107.6B on trade.xyz in July, narrowly ahead of Hyperliquid's $105.7B of crypto-perpetual volume, according to an OKX and Token Terminal report covering July 1-30. The print marks a sharp climb from $760M in October 2025, with open interest on the same series scaling from $16.1M to $1.72B over nine months.
Why it matters
RWA perpetuals have become a real segment of crypto derivatives. CoinMarketCap Research measured $792.2B of July RWA-perpetual volume across 19 centralized and decentralized venues, a number that confirms institutional scale. The growth signal is unambiguous: offchain-asset contracts are now trading hundreds of billions a month on venues that did not exist a year ago.
Market impact
The "overtake" framing does not survive broader denominators. CoinDesk Research counted $460B of RWA perp volume on centralized exchanges against $3.03T of total CEX derivatives in July, putting the segment at roughly 15.2% of that denominator. Across nine DEXes in CoinMarketCap's sample, RWA contracts stayed below 20% of volume until the HIP-3 venue, more than 99% RWA in that dataset, was added as a tenth. RWA's share then crossed 50% on July 8. The result flipped because the venue mix changed, not because the underlying trading did.
The narrower read still matters. RWA perpetuals have grown from a tracking-error footnote to a multi-hundred-billion-dollar segment in nine months, on venues that route offchain assets through the same perpetual infrastructure as Bitcoin and Ether. Until reports align venue coverage, contract definitions and crypto denominators, "RWA overtook crypto" describes a chosen sample, not the derivatives market.
Frequently asked questions
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What did the OKX and Token Terminal report actually measure?
July RWA perpetual volume on trade.xyz ($107.6B) against crypto perpetual volume on Hyperliquid ($105.7B) over July 1-30. It is a two-venue comparison, not an industry-wide tally.
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Why does coverage of just two venues matter for the overtake claim?
Because a crossover inside a narrow venue pair cannot establish the size of every other competing venue and contract outside the sample. Broader datasets show RWA perps at a much smaller share once the denominator expands.
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How large is RWA perp volume according to wider datasets?
CoinMarketCap Research measured $792.2B across 19 centralized and decentralized venues in July. CoinDesk Research counted $460B on CEXs against $3.03T of total CEX derivatives, putting RWA perps at roughly 15.2% of that CEX denominator.
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What flipped the result in CoinMarketCap's DEX sample?
Adding the HIP-3 venue as a tenth exchange, where activity was more than 99% RWA, pushed RWA's measured share above 50% on July 8. The change came from the venue mix, not from the underlying trading.
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What would it take to settle whether RWA perps overtook crypto perps?
Researchers would need aligned venue coverage, contract definitions, time windows and a comparable crypto-derivative denominator. Until then, any overtake claim describes the sample that produced it.
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