GPU Index Perps | Aster's Hong Kong Listings | OKX Pre-IPO Markets

It was another up week for RWA perps—not just volumes, but narratives, with growth stories in non-US equities (S. Korean stocks) and alt commodities (GPUs). Equity perps kept growing in their share of the overall RWA perps markets, though commodities remain dominant. Among exchanges, the smallest DEX and the smallest CEX showed the highest percentage volume growth, week over week.

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This issue covers the week ending May 10, 2026, and draws on volume data from Binance, Bitget, Bybit, Coinbase International, Dreamcash and XYZ on Hyperliquid, Lighter, MEXC, and OKX. If there's a ticker, exchange, or data cut you'd like to see included, reach out at [email protected] or just reply to this email.

The past couple weeks have brought a flood of new equity listings, and equity perps volumes are increasing their share of RWA perps vs. the overwhelmingly larger commodity perps markets. Ex-a16z investor Jay Drain caught it: even within the RWA perps meta there are sub-metas to watch. 

Also worth a read (and related): crispheaney posted about crypto as a meta machine, "technology that enables people to create and play new financial games"; Catrina Wang at Portal Ventures feeling contrarian on HYPE, prediction markets & pre-IPO meta; and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong making the case for COIN and that agentic AI meta. Longer reads: Delphi Digital dropped a new report on RWA Perps; and Ethena came in with an analysis on the GOLD perps basis trade.

Three days of RWA perps volume above $15B in the past week, including one (Thursday) that nearly touched $18B, and recorded RWA perps markets' highest daily volume since April 8. Then traders touched grass as Saturday volume dropped to $1.4B after a week marked by optimism for an easing of the Strait of Hormuz oil chokepoint (now, again, in doubt), strong earnings, and record highs for the Nasdaq 100 (NDX) and S&P 500 (SPX).

It was the second straight week of RWA perps volume growth, 13.4% above last week's volumes, crossing $75B in weekly volume for the first time since the week of April 6. Equity perps continued to grow faster than commodities and indices, reaching $9.4B and making up nearly 12% of all RWA perps volume, after crossing the 10% threshold, the prior week. ETF perps volume also grew substantially, to $820M, 1% of the market.

SNDK (SanDisk) was the fastest runner in the equity perps volume surge, nearly equaling volume traded on the Trade[XYZ] Nasdaq 100 (NDX) proxy (ticker: xyz100), and knocking TSLA (Tesla, flat at $668M) out of the top 10 most traded RWA perps for the first time ever, leaving only crypto bellwether CRCL (Circle, ahead of its earnings just this Monday morning) and tech large caps linked to the AI trade as the equities in the top 10.

The DJI (Dow Jones Industrial Average) was a surprise at the top of the growth chart. It's only traded on one exchange: a proxy market on MEXC (ticker: US30_USDT). GME (GameStop), with 70% of its volume on Hyperliquid via Trade[XYZ] also grew: plenty of fodder with its surprise bid for EBAY (eBay) last week and things just feeling kind of memetic in general. For those bullish on cross-border equity trading, HYUNDAI and SKHYNIX grew by multiples on Lighter and Trade[XYZ], the two exchanges that list perps on these S. Korean stocks.

Aster, a perp DEX affiliated with Binance, listed new markets in Hong Kong stocks this week: POPMART, TENCENT, and XIAOMI, all seen for the first time here. Trade[XYZ] added a H100 GPU index perp; it's now visible on the trading UI after XYZ won the ticker at auction, but hadn't printed any candles yet, as of this writing (not sure which H100 index it will be tracking, either). Several exchanges listed new markets in DRAM (Roundhill Memory ETF). MEXC restored markets in four industrial metals, which they had marked "closed," last week; found no explanation why. And, OKX proved some demand for pre-IPO perps on their platform, with $22.7M in average daily volume in their newly listed SPACEX market (one of three new pre-IPO listings there, all in the top five by average daily volume).

No change in the top five, but Hyperliquid and OKX are all growing in market share, with Hyperliquid up 0.9 points to 19.4% and OKX up 0.4 points to 5.4%. Market share losers included BitGet (-1.2 points) and MEXC (-0.8 points). Coinbase is the smallest CEX, but posted impressive RWA perps growth, more than doubling its volume and its market share (0.4% this week, ranked 9th out of 11).

No change in the ranking of DEXs by volume, but worth noting that it continues to be Hyperliquid and everyone else—not just in overall volumes, but in growth. Every other DEX listed here declined in volume, except the smallest, Aster (up 50% to $0.17B). Hyperliquid RWA perps volume grew from $12.95B to $15.26B (up 18%), week over week.

The CBRS (Cerebras Systems) IPO is expected to price this Wednesday; the pre-IPO market in CBRS on Trade[XYZ] was down slightly in daily volume vs. last week: $17.6M total for $2.5M per day in its first full week, versus $3.3M a day in its first three days, the prior week.

OKLO (Oklo, nuclear power) earnings come Tuesday; it has a ~$2B+ weekly volume market on Bitget. On Wednesday, CSCO (Cisco) reports; MEXC has a ~$3B weekly market. 

If you have questions about methodology or other data you’re seeking, please get in touch: [email protected].