Wed. Mar 18th, 2026

S&P 500 Perpetual Futures Launch on Hyperliquid with Official Licensing

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S&P Dow Jones Indices has licensed its S&P 500 Index to Trade[XYZ] for the launch of a perpetual futures contract on Hyperliquid, in what the company described as the first officially licensed onchain product offering continuous, leveraged exposure to the index for eligible non-US users.

According to Wednesday’s announcement, contract allows eligible non-US traders to take long or short positions on the index without an expiry date, with markets operating continuously outside traditional exchange hours using official index data from S&P Dow Jones Indices.

The contract also brings equity index exposure onto Hyperliquid, extending the use of perpetual derivatives beyond cryptocurrencies into traditional financial benchmarks.

Trade[XYZ] said its onchain markets have processed more than $100 billion in volume since October 2025, with an annualized run rate topping $600 billion.

The move comes after the index maker teamed with Centrifuge in July to bring the S&P 500 onchain through proof-of-index infrastructure and the launch of a tokenized index fund built on blockchain-based systems.

Related: Perp DEXs almost triple volume in 2025 as onchain derivatives mature

Crypto exchanges expand perpetual trading into traditional assets

Efforts to bring traditional financial markets into crypto are taking varied forms, including tokenized assets and perpetual derivatives tied to real-world markets.

In January, Binance launched “TradFi” perpetual contracts, offering USDT-settled derivatives linked to commodities such as gold and silver with 24/7, no-expiry trading. The following month, Kraken expanded the model to equities, introducing tokenized perpetual futures that provide leveraged exposure to US stock indexes, gold and specific companies.

Earlier this month, Coinbase said it would introduce round-the-clock trading for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) futures in the US and expand into perpetual-style contracts.

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Tokenized equities market cap. Source: RWA.xyz

At the same time, tokenized equities have grown steadily. Data from RWA.xyz shows total onchain value rising to about $1.09 billion from roughly $300 million at the start of 2025.

The market remains relatively concentrated, led by a mix of tokenized equities and exchange-traded products. Circle Internet Group accounts for about $136.8 million in value, followed by Exodus Movement at $83 million and Alphabet at $72.9 million, with Tesla and the iShares Silver Trust also among the largest holdings.

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Source: RWA.xyz

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