Hyperliquid Volume Drops 11% | Binance CMO Departs | Perps Lead Trad Markets

RWA perps are showing signs they can provide clear price signal for equities and commodities, when traditional markets are dark.

CME Group & Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE parent) let out word they are pushing to regulate Hyperliquid. That is a) completely unsurprising, and b) probably aligned with Hyperliquid’s own direction: their stablecoin deal with Coinbase & Circle is at minimum a signal to the market that Hyperliquid is viable for these regulated partners. Meanwhile, the CLARITY Act is moving forward, toward a date when perps exchanges can serve US investors. 

A Q1 report on Trade[XYZ] shows how the onchain RWA perps leader has grown since its launch just last October: ~10X volume growth in Q1 to $113B, generating $7.9M in fee revenue (~0.7 bps on average). XYZ’s dominance of RWA perp DEXs leaves some scratching their heads at this strange alchemy of commodities, equities and memetic exuberance. 

If you think all this is getting a little too normal in crypto, read a brief white paper for alt.fun, where you can create a bonding curve token backed by a position on Hyperliquid. "The design here produces an instrument that carries the social properties of a launched token and the financial properties of a leveraged directional bet." 

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This issue covers the week ending May 17, 2026, and draws on volume data from Binance, Bitget, Bybit, Coinbase International, Dreamcash and Trade[XYZ] on Hyperliquid, EdgeX, Grvt, Lighter, MEXC, and OKX. If there's a ticker, exchange, or data cut you'd like to see included, reach out at [email protected].

Next week, Monday is a US holiday. Perpetuals Weekly will come out on Tuesday.

This post from Citrini captured the mood heading into the CBRS IPO, making it this week's Tweet of the Week. Here’s the original post by Benchmark's Eric Vishria, celebrating Cerebras' 10-year journey to a blockbuster entry into public markets. Benchmark, Foundation Capital and Eclipse all participated in the 2016 Series A, with fund-returning outcomes.

Perps markets shrugged at a CPI print, the Trump-Xi China summit, the CLARITY Act's advance, and the CBRS IPO, staying at muted levels through Thursday. Then on Friday, daily volume nearly hit $20B, powered by a ~$5B surge in commodity perps. It was the third highest-volume day on record, after Apr 7 and Mar 23. Binance, Bitget, MEXC, and OKX were all up 80% or more above their prior week's average daily volume. Coinbase's volume was up 294%, Lighter's up 80%, and Hyperliquid's up 32%. The only known catalysts were a U. Michigan Consumer Sentiment report that hit a record low at 47.6, and the Friday release of three new Drake albums.

Equity perps are now nearly 20% of the RWA perps markets, continuing growth that just two weeks ago crossed 10% for the first time since January. Consistent trading in equities across the five-day week, plus the Friday surge in commodities, gave RWA perps volumes a 5.8% volume gain, the third up week in a row for RWA perps volume as a whole.

Trade[XYZ] has established a comfortable position as the leader on US equity indexes, with its SPX contract and the NDX proxy XYZ100. That’s looking less important in the current market as individual stocks on Binance are surging into the top spot below commodities (SNDK, MU, and CRCL), pushing index perps downward to 4.27% of the market (from 4.3% the prior week, steadily downward since Apr 13 when they were 5.2%).

The top markets by growth is often crowded with MEXC-only listings. This week it's HK100, CSCO, & ASTS. If that feels noisy, look at CBRS, with several new markets (the largest being on Hyperliquid via Trade[XYZ]), and HYUNDAI, on this growth leaderboard for the second week in a row (with most of the volume on Lighter). Volume in MU is also notable, with 10 exchanges listing and nearly half the volume on Binance: it’s not every week one of the largest by absolute volume also leads in growth.

Another big week for new single-stock equity perps, with a few ETFs sprinkled in, showing exchanges building where the growth has been recently. One new commodity listing: BRENT on Bybit. A bunch of exchanges now list CBRS, but Trade[XYZ] on Hyperliquid remains dominant in volume, with $404M of the $476M in total perps volume on that stock. Other new notables include some Asia stocks: NIO, the Chinese electric vehicle maker, is now listed on Bitget for the first time among exchanges we track; BABA is now listed on Bybit, the seventh equity perps market for the Chinese e-tailer. Unlike the Hong Kong stocks listed last week on Aster, these have tracking stocks as their underlying.

Hyperliquid declined in RWA perps volume, down 11% from last week's $15.3B, while all the other top exchanges grew by double-digit percentages, week over week, gaining market share against the lone DEX in the top five. Watching what’s happening beyond the order book at these exchanges: Binance, regularly in the first or second spot on this leaderboard, is getting a new CMO: Rachel Conlan is leaving next month, after three years in the role.

It was a good week for Lighter, which grew volume 24% week over week, while all the other DEXs listed here shrank, besides Grvt (4% growth). S. Korean stocks have been a success story: HYUNDAI ($22.8M) and SAMSUNG ($16.7M) surged 1,073% and 609%, respectively. US stocks grew too, with ORCL up to $9.5M from almost nothing and MU growing 381% to $17.2M. Lighter’s GOLD market doubled in volume, from $109M to $239M.

Word of new listings on Binance dropped Monday morning: Visa, Coreweave, JPM, Rocketlab, Walmart, BRK.B, Fluence, and DRAM. That's just in time for WMT earnings, this Thursday, alongside the newly listed HD market, also on Binance.) Trade[XYZ] on Sunday announced it will list a pre-IPO market in SPACEX. Crypto stalwarts like CRCL continue to be equity perps volume leaders, but Consensys won't be joining their ranks any time soon: it has pushed back its IPO til the fall.

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

Reminder that Perps Weekly will drop on Tuesday next week, due to the Memorial Day holiday.