HTX Ventures' latest research report interprets RWA Perps: On-chain finance is moving from "asset on-chain" to "risk on-chain."

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 RWA perpetual contracts sector in 2026.

HTX Ventures believes that RWA Perps is a key step for on-chain finance to move from "asset tokenization" to "risk tokenization." It embeds the price fluctuations of global macro assets such as gold, crude oil, US stocks, and indices on-chain in the form of perpetual contracts, allowing users to trade not ownership of assets, but global macro volatility. This represents a shift in the trading coordinate system.

From "Asset Tokenization" to "Price Tokenization": Two Essentially Different Paths

To understand the explosion of RWA Perps, it is necessary to clarify a fundamental cognitive difference. Tokenized assets (Tokenized RWA) follow the "asset tokenization" path: real assets are tokenized, and the tokens held by users represent ownership or revenue rights of the underlying assets, involving complete off-chain infrastructure such as custody, compliance certification, and redemption mechanisms, with high entry barriers and long cycles. RWA Perps, on the other hand, follow the "price tokenization" path: they provide price exposure for off-chain assets through perpetual contracts, allowing traders to engage in leveraged trading on price movements without holding or custody of the underlying assets.

This distinction brings explosive demand from the supply side. No ownership means lower compliance barriers and faster onboarding; all-time trading compensates for liquidity gaps in traditional markets, where US stocks are closed on weekends and crude oil lacks night trading, which is not an issue on-chain; and through on-chain stablecoin collateral, users can conduct low-cost leveraged trading on traditional high-barrier assets like gold and US stocks without needing to open offshore brokerage accounts or go through cumbersome KYC processes.

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

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

This explosion is the result of a resonance between four long-term drivers and a sudden catalyst. The scale accumulated over the past year in tokenization has allowed users to cross the critical point of trust in "non-crypto asset tokenization"; the introduction of mature assets like gold, crude oil, and US stocks on-chain has lowered the understanding costs for traders; the deep familiarity of crypto users with the perpetual contract paradigm means that switching to RWA assets incurs almost zero learning costs; and engineering breakthroughs in oracles and pricing engines have resolved early pain points such as market gaps during closures and long-tail liquidity.

The real "live test" occurred over a weekend in March 2026. When US military actions against Iran coincided with a weekend window, completely halting the traditional crude oil market, the CME's WTI price remained in the $91 to $92 range from Friday's close, with no mechanism to digest this sudden information shock. Meanwhile, on-chain crude oil perpetual contracts quickly surged to the $96 to $109 range within hours, and as the conflict escalated, they reached around $115. During this 48-hour period, the on-chain market became the only effective crude oil price discovery mechanism globally. When the traditional market reopened on Monday, the CME crude oil price gapped up, aligning with the price range formed on-chain over the weekend, and the opening price of the traditional market was, to some extent, merely a delayed confirmation of the on-chain price. This event elevated "24/7 trading" from a product selling point to a real infrastructure capability tested under pressure.

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

The expansion of RWA Perps follows the logic of moving from "simple high-frequency" to "complex low-frequency": from commodity dominance to the expansion of stocks and ETFs, and now to the currently most watched Pre-IPO deep water zone. In May 2026, AI chip company Cerebras went public on Nasdaq, opening at $350; prior to this, the on-chain Pre-IPO perpetual contract quoted $340 one hour before the listing, with only a 2.9% deviation from the actual opening price. During the same period, the institutional secondary platform Hiive, aimed at qualified investors, quoted around $220, approximately 37% lower than the actual opening price. The pricing accuracy of the on-chain market for private companies was verified to be superior to that of traditional institutional secondary markets for the first time in a real IPO.

Huobi HTX's Positioning: A Comprehensive TradFi Matrix from Commodities to US Stocks

In this sector, 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 past week, with CEX accounting for 71.6%, a significant increase from 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 of observing CEX's strategic intentions. In February 2026, Huobi HTX officially launched the TradFi perpetual contract segment, with product forms completely consistent with crypto perpetuals: USDT-based, no expiration date, 24/7 trading, supporting leverage and cross or isolated margin. The initial focus was on commodities, quickly expanding to US 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 being added. The individual US stock layer has the widest coverage, including major tech stocks like Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and TSMC, as well as traditional blue-chip stocks like JPMorgan, Walmart, and Berkshire, and also includes 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 varieties like the Amundi MSCI Korea and Japan, with expansion still ongoing.

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

Conclusion

The rapid expansion of RWA Perps does not obscure its structural constraints—oracle accuracy, market gaps during closures, directional liquidity risks, and dual regulatory barriers, each layer represents a potential breaking point. The long-term winner in this sector will not be determined by the speed of trading volume expansion but by the depth of risk management and compliance architecture. However, the direction is clear: as the on-chain market begins to undertake price discovery for global macro assets and proves its effectiveness in extreme market conditions and real IPOs, the boundary between on-chain finance and global capital markets is 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 the global investment division of ++Huobi HTX++, integrating investment, incubation, and research to identify the best and brightest teams worldwide. As an industry pioneer, HTX Ventures has over 11 years of experience in blockchain development, specializing in identifying cutting-edge technologies and emerging business models in the field. To drive growth within the blockchain ecosystem, we provide comprehensive support for projects, including financing, resources, and strategic advice.

HTX Ventures currently supports over 300 projects across various blockchain domains, with some high-quality projects already trading on Huobi HTX. Additionally, as one of the most active FOF funds, HTX Ventures invests in 30 top-tier funds globally and collaborates with leading blockchain funds such as Polychain, Dragonfly, Bankless, Gitcoin, Figment, Nomad, Animoca, and Hack VC to jointly build the blockchain ecosystem.