BitMEX said in a Thursday report that commodity perpetual swaps were the fastest-growing segment of traditional finance–linked perps in Q1 2026, with weekly trading volume surging 65,463%—from $38.1 million to $25 billion.
The growth was largely driven by silver, crude oil, and gold. By the week of March 15, silver (XAG) held a 34.8% share of the tokenized commodities market, followed by crude oil (CL) at 27.7%, gold (XAU) at 27.5%, and silver on Hyperliquid at 6%, the report noted.
BitMEX added that the introduction of crude oil trading in March gave the market fresh momentum, citing Iran-related geopolitical tensions and rising demand for round-the-clock commodity exposure on crypto-native platforms.
Overall, the data highlights the rapid expansion of a niche segment within the crypto derivatives market.
Weekend dislocations boost commodity perps
“Onchain TradFi perps allow traders to speculate and hedge in real time against weekend geopolitical events, such as the recent Iran conflict,” Stephan Lutz, CEO of BitMEX, told Cointelegraph. “While perpetual swaps will likely continue capturing a large share of commodities trading due to their 24/7 accessibility, we remain highly skeptical about tokenizing physical spot assets,” he added.
Lutz noted that minting physical commodities on the blockchain is complicated by the legacy financial system’s “complex, arbitrary legal rules.” He expects onchain derivatives to keep eroding the market share of traditional commodities until legacy institutions like the CME launch their own round-the-clock trading venues.
Meanwhile, the total market capitalization of onchain commodities fell 2.7% over the past 30 days, reaching $7.34 billion as of Thursday, according to data aggregator RWA.xyz.
BitMEX, which claims to have launched the first perpetual swap in 2016, now offers over 20 traditional finance–linked contracts, the report said.
Meanwhile, Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, rolled out gold and silver perpetuals in January, providing contracts across precious metals and tokenized equities. Its silver (XAG) contract averaged $1.31 billion in daily trading volume during the quarter, the report noted.
