Recently, HTX Ventures, the global investment division of Huobi HTX, released the latest research report titled RWA Perps: A New Expansion Direction for On-Chain Global Financial Markets, which systematically analyzes the explosive logic, technical architecture, and competitive landscape of the emerging track of RWA perpetual contracts in 2026.

HTX Ventures believes that RWA Perps is a key step in the transition of on-chain finance from "asset on-chain" to "risk on-chain." It embeds the price fluctuations of global macro assets such as gold, crude oil, U.S. stocks, and indices into the blockchain in the form of perpetual contracts, where users trade not the ownership of assets, but the global macro volatility. This is a migration of the trading coordinate system.

From "Asset On-Chain" to "Price On-Chain": Two Essentially Different Paths

To understand the explosion of RWA Perps, one needs to clarify an underlying cognitive difference. Tokenized assets (Tokenized RWA) follow the "asset on-chain" path: real assets are tokenized, and the tokens held by users represent ownership or rights to the underlying assets, involving complete off-chain infrastructure such as custody, compliance certification, and redemption mechanisms, with high entry thresholds and long cycles. RWA Perps, on the other hand, follow the "price on-chain" path: they provide price exposure to off-chain assets through perpetual contracts, allowing traders to conduct leveraged trading on price fluctuations without holding or storing the underlying assets.

This distinction brings explosive demand from the supply side. No ownership means lower compliance thresholds and faster onboarding; all-time trading compensates for the liquidity gaps in traditional markets, where the closure of the U.S. stock market on weekends and the absence of night trading in crude oil are not obstacles on-chain; by collateralizing with on-chain stablecoins, users can conduct low-cost leveraged trading on traditional high-threshold assets such as gold and U.S. stocks without opening offshore brokerage accounts or going through cumbersome KYC processes.

Explosive 2026: Quarterly Trading Volume Surpassing Last Year's Annual Total

In the first quarter of 2026, RWA Perps officially exited the experimental stage. The quarterly trading volume reached $524.8 billion, surpassing the entire annual volume of $313.0 billion in 2025 within just one quarter, with the average daily open interest increasing 5.6 times to $4.82 billion. The core driving force behind this shift is the "permissionless market deployment" brought about by the Hyperliquid HIP-3 protocol. It compressed the onboarding cycle for on-chain RWA assets from months of approval to operations at the minute level, directly igniting demand across the entire track.

This explosion is the result of the resonance between four long-term driving forces and one sudden catalyst. The scale accumulated by tokenization over the past year has made users' trust in "non-crypto assets on-chain" cross the critical point; the introduction of mature assets such as gold, crude oil, and U.S. stocks to the blockchain has reduced the cognitive cost for traders; the deep habit of crypto users with perpetual contract paradigms has made the switch to RWA assets almost zero learning cost; breakthroughs in oracle and pricing engine engineering have solved early pain points such as market gaps during closures and long-tail liquidity.

Moreover, the real "live test" occurred on a weekend in March 2026. When U.S. military actions against Iran coincided with a weekend window and the traditional crude oil market completely shut down, CME's WTI prices remained flat within the $91 to $92 range of Friday's closing, with no mechanism to absorb the sudden informational shock. Meanwhile, on-chain crude oil perpetual contracts quickly surged within hours to the $96 to $109 range and touched around $115 as the conflict escalated. During this 48-hour period, the on-chain market became the only operational crude oil price discovery mechanism worldwide. When the traditional market reopened on Monday, CME crude oil prices gapped directly toward the price range formed on-chain during the weekend, and the opening price of the traditional market, to some extent, only confirmed the price on-chain with a delay. This event elevated "24/7 trading" from a product selling point to a demonstrated capability of real infrastructure under pressure.

Transfer of Pricing Power: On-Chain Market Prevails in Real IPO for the First Time

The expansion of RWA Perps follows a logic from "simple high frequency" to "complex low frequency": from commodity dominance to the expansion of stocks and ETFs, leading to the current focus on the deep waters of Pre-IPO. In May 2026, AI chip company Cerebras listed on NASDAQ at an opening price of $350; prior to this, the on-chain Pre-IPO perpetual contracts quoted $340 one hour before the listing, with only a 2.9% error compared to the actual opening price. During the same period, the qualified investor institutional secondary platform Hiive quoted around $220, approximately 37% lower than the actual opening price. The pricing accuracy of the on-chain market for private companies was verified for the first time to be superior to that of traditional institutional secondary markets in a real IPO.

Huobi HTX's Positioning: A Comprehensive TradFi Matrix from Commodities to U.S. Stocks

In this track, CEX and DEX are forming a clear division of labor. As of mid-May 2026, the total trading volume of RWA Perps across the market reached $55.9 billion in the most recent week, with CEX accounting for 71.6%, a proportion that was less than 15% six months ago—CEX is becoming the core channel for RWA Perps to reach mainstream users.

Huobi HTX's TradFi product line is a typical example to observe the strategic intentions of CEX. In February 2026, Huobi HTX officially launched its TradFi perpetual contract segment, with product forms identical to crypto perpetual contracts: USDT-based, no expiration date, 24/7 trading, supporting leverage and cross or isolated margin. The initial focus was on commodities and quickly expanded to U.S. stocks and major indices.

As of June 9, 2026, Huobi HTX's TradFi segment has launched a total of 96 assets, forming a clear three-tier structure. Precious metals and energy form the basic layer, with gold, silver, platinum, palladium, WTI and Brent crude oil, copper, and natural gas gradually added. The individual U.S. stock layer has the broadest coverage, including major technology stocks like Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and TSMC, traditional blue chips such as JPMorgan, Walmart, and Berkshire, and cross-concept stocks like CoreWeave, Circle, Coinbase, and MicroStrategy. The index and ETF layer covers S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, QQQ, SPY, and cross-market products such as Amundi MSCI Korea and Japan, with ongoing expansion.

Huobi HTX leverages the low latency and depth of a centralized matching engine to seamlessly integrate TradFi contracts into the trading interface familiar to crypto users, significantly lowering the cognitive barriers. This forms a clear division of labor with DEX: CEX is responsible for traffic and popularization, while DEX caters to users and funds with clear demands for decentralization, with the two not being in zero-sum competition but jointly expanding the boundaries of the entire market.

Conclusion

The rapid expansion of RWA Perps does not mask its structural constraints—oracle accuracy, market gaps during closures, directional liquidity risks, and dual regulatory barriers, each level presents potential breaking points. The long-term decisive factor for this track lies not in the speed of trading volume expansion but in the depth of risk management and compliance architecture. However, the direction is already clear: when the on-chain market begins to undertake global macro asset price discovery and proves its effectiveness in extreme market conditions and real IPOs, the boundaries between on-chain finance and the global capital market are being redefined. Huobi HTX's proactive positioning in TradFi perpetual contracts is a response from leading exchanges to this long-term trend.

About HTX Ventures

HTX Ventures is Huobi HTX's global investment division, integrating investment, incubation, and research to identify the world's most outstanding and intelligent teams. As an industry pioneer, HTX Ventures has over 11 years of blockchain building experience and excels in identifying cutting-edge technologies and emerging business models in the field. To promote growth within the blockchain ecosystem, we provide comprehensive support for projects, including funding, resources, and strategic advice.

HTX Ventures currently supports over 300 projects covering multiple blockchain domains, with some high-quality projects already listed on Huobi HTX. Additionally, as one of the most active FOF funds, HTX Ventures invests in 30 top funds globally and collaborates with top global blockchain funds such as Polychain, Dragonfly, Bankless, Gitcoin, Figment, Nomad, Animoca, and Hack VC to co-build the blockchain ecosystem. Visit us.

For investment and collaboration, please feel free to contact VC@htx-inc.com