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Crypto traders hedge oil, gold via perps as tensions rise
One 24/7 cryptocurrency trading venue became a hotspot this weekend for hedging oil and precious metals as tensions between the US, Israel, and Iran escalated.
On cryptocurrency exchange Hyperliquid, perpetual swap contracts for oil rose about 5% to US$70.6 per barrel while gold and silver perps climbed about 1.3% and 2% to US$5,323 and US$94.9 per troy ounce, respectively.
Silver led commodity perp volume on Hyperliquid with over US$227 million traded in 24 hours and gold perps saw about US$173 million change hands.
Perpetual swaps are cryptocurrency-native derivatives that mimic futures but do not expire, letting traders hold leveraged positions round the clock.
Reports suggest nonstop cryptocurrency venues offer an off-hours read on broader markets as Wall Street watches, though volumes remain a fraction of regular market hours.
🔗 Source: Bloomberg
🧠 Food for thought
Implications, context, and why it matters.
This 24/7 macro trading comes from a specific product approach
- Oil and metals trading on Hyperliquid runs through HIP-3, which lets third-party developers create permissionless perpetual swap markets for non-crypto assets 1.
- These custom markets have already reached a $5.2 billion daily volume record, sparked by sharp swings in gold and silver prices 2.
- Volume can cluster in a few hands. During one precious-metals surge, one participant named TradeXYZ generated nearly 90% of total HIP-3 volume 2.
Hyperliquid is narrowing the gap between crypto and institutional trading
- Hyperliquid now draws institutional firms. Ripple said its institutional prime brokerage platform, Ripple Prime, supports Hyperliquid 3.
- Ripple Prime users can tap Hyperliquid’s onchain perpetuals liquidity while keeping margin and risk handled inside Ripple Prime. It also supports cross-margining DeFi derivatives exposures with positions in other supported markets like foreign exchange (FX) or fixed income 3.
- Artemis data cited in a report published in early February 2026 puts Hyperliquid’s 2025 notional trading volume at $2.6 trillion, versus $1.4 trillion for Coinbase 4.
