BitMEX released a report on Thursday identifying commodity perpetual swaps as the fastest-growing segment of traditional finance perpetuals in the first quarter of 2026. Weekly trading volume in the category surged 65,463%, climbing from $38.1 million to $25.0 billion over the period. The exchange attributed much of this expansion to heightened demand for around-the-clock commodity exposure on crypto-native platforms.
Silver, crude oil, and gold were the primary drivers of that growth. By the week of March 15, Silver (XAG) held a 34.8% share of the tokenized commodities market, followed by crude oil at 27.7% and Gold (XAU) at 27.5%. Silver trading on Hyperliquid accounted for an additional 6% of market share during the same period.
Crude oil entered the market in March, adding a new dimension to the segment. BitMEX linked that development to geopolitical tensions involving Iran and growing trader appetite for commodity instruments available outside traditional market hours. Brent crude oil has risen approximately 44% since the first US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, moving from around $69 to above $99 at the time of the report’s publication, according to data from Trading Economics. Prices peaked near $114 on Tuesday, their highest point since the conflict began.
Stephan Lutz, CEO at BitMEX, said onchain traditional finance perpetuals are enabling traders to speculate and hedge against weekend geopolitical events, such as the Iran conflict, in real time. He noted that the perpetual swaps model is positioned to capture significant market share in commodities trading due to its continuous availability. However, Lutz expressed skepticism toward the tokenization of spot assets.
Lutz also pointed to structural obstacles facing the minting of physical commodities on the blockchain, citing what he described as complex and arbitrary legal rules embedded in the legacy financial system. He suggested that onchain derivatives will continue to erode the trading share of traditional commodities markets until established institutions such as CME introduce their own 24/7 trading venues.
In the broader onchain commodities market, total capitalization declined 2.7% over the past 30 days to $7.34 billion as of Thursday, according to data aggregator RWA.xyz. BitMEX, which says it launched the first perpetual swap in 2016, now offers more than 20 traditional finance contracts across its platform.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, introduced gold and silver perpetuals in January and currently offers contracts covering precious metals and tokenized equities. Its Silver contract recorded an average daily volume of $1.31 billion during the first quarter, according to the BitMEX report.
Originally reported by CoinTelegraph.
