The popularity of Hyperliquid, whose blockchain technology lets traders buy and sell every day around the clock, reflects how the economic impacts of geopolitical conflicts aren’t limited to the 9:30 a.m.-to-4 p.m. weekday hours of stock exchanges.
The crypto industry has long touted blockchain’s capacity for 24/7 trading, as well as a trading innovation known as perpetual futures. But the popularity of Hyperliquid’s oil contracts reflects how the broader financial world is coming to appreciate these advantages.
“So, 24/7 global events are creating demand for 24/7 markets,” said Mary-Catherine Lader, founder and CEO of Native Markets, a startup building its own stablecoin, or cryptocurrency pegged to the U.S. dollar, on Hyperliquid. “There’s been plenty of enthusiasm about blockchain enabling 24/7 markets for years, but now there’s real market demand.”
Any developer can launch an asset on Hyperliquid. That’s why there are multiple oil contracts on the platform, which are pegged to oil indices like Brent or West Texas Intermediate crude. One of the most popular, launched by the trading platform trade.xyz, has notched daily trading volumes of more than $1 billion every day this week.
How developers price the contracts while the markets are closed, however, is up to the designers of the contracts. Trade.xyz’s derivative tracks the price of one barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude. “That is part of the innovation that’s honestly happening right now,” said Lader, the CEO of Native Markets.
