Hyperliquid's perpetual contracts cover over 80 traditional commodity and stock markets, with notional trading volume exceeding $500 billion
Odaily News, Hyperliquid Policy Center stated on the X platform that perpetual contracts should be central to the innovation agenda of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The agency has submitted a statement ahead of the first meeting of the CFTC's Technology Advisory Committee on August 20, noting that perpetual contracts are expanding beyond digital asset markets into traditional asset classes such as equities and commodities, and that demand for these products among U.S. market participants is rising. Perpetual contracts can meet the risk management needs of various market participants, particularly suited for airlines hedging fuel costs, investment funds managing portfolio exposure, and AI developers addressing compute costs—exposures that are ongoing and have no defined expiration date. Compared to futures with fixed expiration dates, perpetual contracts require no rollover and face no expiration or delivery issues, using periodic funding rates to anchor the contract price to the underlying asset. Currently, on Hyperliquid, perpetual contracts deployed by third-party developers have covered over 80 traditional commodity and stock markets, with cumulative notional trading volume exceeding $500 billion. The CFTC has taken multiple steps this year to facilitate the launch of perpetual contract markets in the U.S. In May, the CFTC approved the first perpetual futures contract listed in the U.S. and issued a policy statement on listing perpetual contracts along with guidance on continuous trading; in June, the CFTC sought public comment on expanding perpetual contracts to energy commodities and further consulted on compute derivatives. Additionally, Hyperliquid Policy Center believes that on-chain infrastructure can also modernize U.S. derivatives markets within the existing regulatory framework. Public blockchains can openly record markets, orders, and positions, conduct margin assessments programmatically on an ongoing basis, and enable real-time collateral transfers, thereby reducing counterparty credit risk and settlement risk. The agency will continue to provide research and technical documents to the CFTC's Technology Advisory Committee and committee staff, and work to establish a pathway for U.S. market participants to access on-chain markets in a compliant manner. The agency believes that perpetual contracts represent one of the most notable financial innovations of the past decade and should be further developed in the U.S. market.
