Maybe we were wrong about blockchain, Bloomberg suggests, as perps go mainstream
Perpetual futures are pulling crypto trading infrastructure into stocks, metals, and oil, and Wall Street is starting to pay attention
Bloomberg is floating a different idea about blockchain in traditional finance. The reason is perpetual futures, or “perps,” a crypto-native trading product that is moving into markets for stocks, metals, and oil.
The product that crypto built
A traditional futures contract is a bet on a future price with a fixed end date. A perpetual future drops the end date. Traders can hold a leveraged position for as long as they like.
BitMEX popularized the product in 2016. Since then, perps have become the dominant form of crypto derivatives trading, making up the majority of the sector’s volume.
Open interest across crypto perps sits at approximately $67ā81 billion. Open interest is the total value of positions still open, so it measures how much money is actually riding on these contracts.
Open interest across non-crypto perps has reached around $9 billion. Bloomberg’s reporting links the perp boom to a $62 trillion market spanning stocks, metals, and oil.
Hyperliquid and Ripple move in
Much of the momentum traces back to Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange built around perpetual futures, where trades settle on a blockchain rather than through a traditional clearing intermediary.
Hyperliquid reported total open interest of over $18 billion in late September 2026. At the end of August, that figure stood at approximately $13 billion.
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Around October 5-6, 2026, the Bloomberg Terminal began streaming Hyperliquid perpetual futures prices around the clock, covering asset classes that include crypto and commodities.
Ripple’s prime brokerage unit has moved into perpetual swaps linked to real-world assets, aimed at institutional clients. Bloomberg reported in October 2026 that the unit is expected to tap into the roughly $9 billion segment for institutional perp trading.
From halted pilots to regulatory support
The early era of blockchain-in-finance was marked by skepticism, with the halted Australian Securities Exchange blockchain project standing as a cautionary tale. Incumbents tried to bolt distributed ledgers onto existing systems, and the results often failed to justify the effort.
A Bloomberg Businessweek article published on September 24, 2026, detailed US regulatory support for blockchain innovation under the Trump administration, with a focus on bringing Hyperliquid into US markets.
What this means for traders and intermediaries
For traders, the headline features are 24/7 access and high leverage. Stock and commodity markets have historically kept business hours, while perps never close. A trader can react to weekend news on oil or a stock before the opening bell, but leverage also means losses can arrive faster and larger than in a plain cash trade.
Bloomberg’s coverage frames these products as carrying both tremendous opportunity and serious risk. Risk management practices built around market closes and expiry dates may need rethinking when neither exists.
For the crypto ecosystem, perps represent a case where a native product is being exported rather than imported. Tokenization efforts often pitched bringing traditional assets onto blockchains, while perps are bringing blockchain trading habits to traditional assets.