Key Takeaways:
Coinbase is adding perpetual futures to its Base App through Hyperliquid, giving eligible users leverage of up to 50x across more than 290 markets.
"Perps are where the volume is—roughly 75% of all crypto trading today is perps, not spot," Chintan Turakhia, head of engineering at Coinbase, said, calling them "the single most requested feature from our power users."
Perpetual futures let traders bet on an asset's price without owning it, and unlike traditional futures they never expire. At launch, users can trade more than 290 pairs around the clock, from Bitcoin and Ethereum to tokenized stocks and commodities, with leverage of up to 50x depending on the asset. Positions can be liquidated if losses exceed thresholds. Hyperliquid, which runs on its own purpose-built Layer 1 blockchain with a fully on-chain order book, handles execution.
The integration deepens a relationship that began in May 2026, when Coinbase was named the official USDC treasury deployer on Hyperliquid's network. USDC balances on Hyperliquid reached roughly $5 billion as of mid-2026, up 2x year-over-year, and every dollar of USDC that enters or exits the network runs through Coinbase's infrastructure. Coinbase holds an equity stake in Circle and earns a share of reserve income, so more USDC on Hyperliquid means more revenue flowing back to the exchange.
The move comes a year after Coinbase rebranded its wallet as Base App, pitching it as an "everything app" combining trading with social features, messaging, AI tools, and creator monetization. That strategy has since shifted. In July, Base creator Jesse Pollak stepped back from leading the app after acknowledging its push into social and creator coins had failed to drive adoption. Pollak said prediction markets, perpetuals, and stablecoins had instead emerged as stronger drivers, with Base refocusing on trading, payments, and AI agents.
"[In my opinion] we made the right bet on builders, but obviously the wrong bet on social," he wrote on X.
For Coinbase's roughly 110 million verified users, the integration removes several layers of friction: no need to bridge assets manually, no separate wallet, no unfamiliar interface. The 50x ceiling means a trader could control a $50,000 position with just $1,000 in collateral. The product is not available in the U.S., UK, Canada, or other jurisdictions that restrict leveraged crypto derivatives.
The launch deepens collaboration between centralized exchanges and decentralized perp venues, a trend that could pressure incumbent derivatives platforms. It also feeds speculation about a potential Base token launch, with prediction-market odds for a token by Dec. 31, 2026 edging from 6 percent to 6.5 percent after the announcement.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
