Hyperliquid is emerging as a key weekend and after-hours venue for Wall Street traders to trade perpetual futures, the Wall Street Journal reported, as round-the-clock onchain markets pull activity away from traditional exchanges.
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Key Takeaways:
- The Wall Street Journal claims Hyperliquid is now the go-to weekend perps venue for Wall Street traders.
- One trader booked a 243% gain on a Saturday oil bet placed hours before traditional futures reopened.
- ICE Chair Jeffrey Sprecher called Hyperliquid a “wake-up call,” citing its 70%-plus grip on decentralized perps.
When the Markets Close, Hyperliquid Stays Open
Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange ( DEX) built for perpetual futures, has become a destination for Wall Street traders looking to act on market-moving news when traditional venues are shut, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported. The article framed the platform as a kind of after-hours and weekend trading floor, where hedge funds, proprietary trading shops, and crypto-native funds can build or unwind large positions on macro events that break outside normal hours.
Perpetual futures, or “perps,” are derivatives that let traders bet on an asset’s price with leverage and no expiration date. Hyperliquid offers them around the clock, spanning not only cryptocurrencies but synthetic markets tied to crude oil, silver, the Nasdaq 100, and even pre-IPO companies such as SpaceX.
The WSJ illustrated the shift with a single trade as Vala Zeinali, a hedge fund commodities trader, closed a crude oil derivatives position on Hyperliquid for a 243% gain after a weekend geopolitical shock, executing the trade on a Saturday (hours before traditional futures markets reopened).
A Wake-up Call for Traditional Exchanges
The migration has not gone unnoticed by incumbents as Jeffrey Sprecher, chair and chief executive of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, recently described Hyperliquid as a “wake-up call.”
He pointed to the fact that the platform dominates more than 70% of the decentralized perpetual futures market and has pulled in non- crypto traders by offering 24/7 oil derivatives, including on weekends when ICE’s own markets are closed.
ICE has met the Hyperliquid team multiple times to evaluate the onchain perps market, and the exchange operator is working with OKX to list oil perpetual contracts tracking its Brent Crude and WTI Crude benchmarks.
Research desks too have started quantifying the platform’s growing influence, with TD Securities recently noting that Hyperliquid priced in roughly 80% of a recent oil market move before traditional exchanges even opened (indicating that price discovery is increasingly happening onchain during off-hours).
Regulators Enter the Picture
The rise has also drawn scrutiny, given that executives from ICE and CME Group recently urged the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and lawmakers to examine Hyperliquid’s rapidly expanding marketplace, arguing that its oil-linked products could pose systemic risks to traditional commodities markets.
Hyperliquid has regularly cleared more than $1 billion in daily volume and processed roughly $190 billion in April alone, accounting for nearly 4% of the entire global perpetuals market and well over half of all decentralized perps volume. Bitcoin.com News also reported that Hyperliquid-linked ETFs have outpaced bitcoin funds during their debut, once again showing how quickly institutional interest in the platform has built.
Looking ahead, if the CFTC moves to rein in onchain perps, Hyperliquid’s weekend edge could narrow. However, if it does not, traditional exchanges may have little choice but to match its always-on model.
