Hyperliquid becomes Wall Street's weekend perps venue as 24/7 volume hits $1.2B

Wall Street traders are turning to Hyperliquid for weekend and after-hours perpetual futures trading, using the decentralized platform to build and unwind positions when CME and ICE are closed.

Hyperliquid has emerged as a key weekend and after-hours venue for perpetual futures trading, with oil-linked contracts on the platform recording more than $1.2 billion in 24-hour notional volume during a weekend trading window, the Wall Street Journal reported.

"The significance was not just the volume, but price discovery happening before traditional commodity markets reopened," TD Securities wrote in a report analyzing Hyperliquid's oil perpetuals during the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict earlier this year.

Notional volume in oil-linked perpetual futures on Hyperliquid grew from roughly $25 million to more than $550 million by the third weekend of trading, according to TD. The platform priced in about 80% of the subsequent move in West Texas Intermediate crude before CME's market reopened, the bank said.

The shift reflects a structural gap in traditional markets. Crypto spot markets trade continuously, but most regulated futures and options venues still operate around defined sessions, creating risk-management gaps during weekends, holidays and late-night macro events. Hyperliquid has benefited from that mismatch by offering traders a venue where price discovery can continue when CME, ICE and other traditional venues are closed.

How Hyperliquid Captured Wall Street's Weekend Flow

Hyperliquid, founded by former quant trader Jeff Yan, allows users to trade perpetual contracts around the clock, covering cryptocurrencies as well as synthetic markets linked to assets such as crude oil, silver, the Nasdaq 100 and pre-IPO companies including SpaceX and Cerebras. The platform has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in protocol revenue since launching its own blockchain, while its HYPE token has grown into one of the largest assets linked to decentralized derivatives market infrastructure.

When Vala Zeinali, a hedge-fund commodities trader, received news of airstrikes against Iran on a Saturday in February, he turned to Hyperliquid to adjust positions hours before traditional markets opened, the WSJ reported.

Regulated Exchanges Face Competitive Pressure

The platform's rise is putting pressure on regulated exchanges and brokers to adapt. U.S. venues have begun exploring regulated perpetual futures and expanded crypto derivatives access, partly because offshore and decentralized platforms have captured demand for high-leverage, continuously traded products. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission last month allowed bitcoin perpetual futures to trade on prediction market platform Kalshi, while Coinbase announced plans to launch U.S. equity-index perpetual futures.

Incumbent exchanges are pushing back. ICE and CME have urged regulators to scrutinize Hyperliquid's oil-linked products while simultaneously exploring similar offerings themselves, according to Bloomberg, highlighting a growing battle between traditional and crypto-native market infrastructure.

For institutional traders, Hyperliquid's appeal lies in continuous execution, broad synthetic market coverage and crypto-native settlement. The risks are equally material. Perpetual futures can involve high leverage, liquidation cascades, thin weekend liquidity and operational risks tied to on-chain infrastructure. The platform restricts U.S. users, but decentralized and offshore trading venues often face questions around geographic controls, compliance and investor protection.

Hyperliquid's growth does not mean decentralized perpetuals will replace CME, ICE or other regulated exchanges. It does show that 24/7 derivatives access has become a serious market-structure issue. The next phase will depend on whether traditional venues can match the speed and availability of crypto-native markets without importing the same leverage, jurisdictional and operational risks that define offshore perpetuals trading.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.