RWA perp volume hit $347B in May, up 1,472x from January. Pre-IPO perps priced Cerebras within 1% of open. Robinhood's EU rollout signals retail adoption ahead.
Real-world asset perpetuals hit $347 billion in trading volume in May, a 1,472-fold increase from the $230 million recorded at the start of 2025, according to Martin Lee, market insights lead at DWF Labs. The figure covers onchain perp markets for tokenized versions of commodities, equities and other traditional assets.
Daily open interest on decentralized exchanges reached $4.5 billion in July, Lee wrote in a CoinDesk column. By the end of May, exchanges had facilitated $1.32 trillion in cumulative RWA perp volume – 13 times the total for all of 2025.
The growth reflects crypto traders seeking 24/7 exposure to asset classes that traditional venues only offer during business hours, Lee said. He pointed to the Iran conflict in 2024, when oil perps on Hyperliquid moved before CME reopened. Perps also avoid expiry dates and the complexity of options, he argued.
Equity perp volume on Hyperliquid ran 13 to 20 times the volume of tokenized equity spot between March and May, Lee wrote. Pre-IPO markets offer a clear example of the mechanism's value. When Cerebras listed on Nasdaq in May, Hyperliquid's pre-IPO perp had priced the stock at $354, within roughly 1% of the $350 opening print and far more accurate than the $185 IPO price set the night before, he said.
RWA perps now account for 31% of all onchain perpetual volume, up from 1.3% at the start of the year. Tokenized equities have a larger user base – 180,845 wallets against 24,378 for equity perps – but perp wallet counts are compounding at roughly 33% a month, compared with 17% for spot, Lee wrote.
The ease of launching new perp markets lets exchanges experiment faster than tokenization, Lee said. Robinhood is already offering RWA perps to European customers. While tokenization drew backing from Larry Fink and other institutional leaders, Lee argued that perps are the mechanism that will bring the broadest retail and institutional adoption.
"Tokenization was crypto's first big export to TradFi," he wrote. "Perps are next."
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